My Hero
by pikapikatchu
Summary: After saving a victim's life, Nick becomes her hero. When he can't meet her expectations, he has to learn the hard way what it means to disappoint crazy people. Follows the events of 'Fallout'.
1. Chapter 1

**Here's another story of mine, settled just a few weeks after 'Fallout'. This one concentrates a little more on Nick than usual but don't worry, there's still enough of Greg! Or can there ever be? :) **

**I hope you'll like it!**

**Big Love,**

**pikapikatchu**

* * *

It was a big, luxurious house somewhere in Henderson. Nick walked through a corridor, finding his way to the crime scene.

"Ma'am, do you know about any enemies?" Greg was sitting at the kitchen table, talking to the decease's wife.

"No. He was such a nice man, everybody loved him. He..." the wife replied crying.

Nick watched Greg as he gently put his hand on the woman's arm, comforting her. He silently greeted his friend as he walked past him. He made his way into the bedroom, where the husband was lying in a pool of his own blood. He had been stabbed. The murderer then tried to cut up the body and failed. It looked like he was interrupted – probably by the wife coming home. Nick greeted Russell and David and proceeded to walk straight up to the latter. "Hey. Time of death?"

"Around midnight." David looked a bit stressed out.

"Anything else?"  
"I just got here, I need more time until I can tell you anything else."

"Alright," Nick said as he walked over to Russell. "Did you find anything useful?"

"Well, I..." Russell was interrupted by noise coming out of the kitchen. "Did you hear that?"

Russell and Nick walked over there to check it out.

* * *

When the two CSIs walked in, they found Greg trying to calm down the wife. A man they didn't know was standing next to them, too.

"Get him **out** of here!" she yelled furiously.

"Mrs. Douglas, please calm down. I'll..." Greg stopped talking as Mrs. Douglas tried to attack the stranger. He had to use a lot of strength to hold her back.

"I just wanted to see him!" the man yelled, not helping the situation at all.

"Sir, please! Go down the corridor in the living room, I'll be with you in a minute..." Greg tried anything he could to diffuse the situation, but it didn't help at all.

"No **way **is he staying! I want him **out **of my home!" She kicked and yelled.

"Hey, what's going on?" Nick walked over, calming her down a bit. "Mrs. Douglas, we'll escort him out, alright?"

While Nick was talking to her, the stranger pulled out a gun, pointing it at the woman.

"Gun!" Russell yelled, quickly drawing his. He shot at the man, but it was already too late. He had fired his gun.

* * *

Greg sat in the hospital waiting room, nervously tapping his right foot up and down. He read every magazine the waiting room had to offer as he waited what felt like an eternity. He jumped off his seat as she saw Nick walking out of the examination room. "Finally! How are you?"

"I'll be fine," Nick replied in a quiet voice. He'd been shot in the arm as he stood in front of Mrs. Douglas, protecting her from the shooting, but he only got winged. It was a harmless graze wound. His left arm was in a sling, his right hand was carrying the painkillers the doctor prescribed him. "...But I'm hungry."

Greg smiled at him. "You did good today."

"Yeah but why do the good deeds always hurt like hell?"

"Come on, you probably saved that woman's life. Without the heroic scratch on your arm it wouldn't be half as courageous. And not as good a pickup line," he replied jokingly.

"Anything from the shooter?"

"Still in surgery. Russell's looking into his files as we speak."

* * *

A week later, Nick and Greg were out at another crime scene. They were investigating a supermarket robbery as Greg noticed someone standing outside. "Don't we know her from somewhere?" he said to his friend as he pointed to Mrs. Douglas, looking through the window.

Nick walked out to greet her. "Mrs. Douglas, what are you doing here?" he asked smiling.

"Mr. Stokes, I haven't heard from you since..." She looked at his wounded arm. "How are you?"

"Fine. How are you holding up?"

She nodded with a sad look. "There's always something good coming from tragedy." Mrs. Douglas an attractive woman in her late 50ies. She had brown hair with a golden glow, ending at her shoulder blades. Her brown eyes always looked rather seductive, as well as her full lips. She was that kind of woman you would call a cougar. But despite this confident, sensual demeanor, there was something fragile about her, and it wasn't only her petite figure.

Nick nodded without knowing what she meant. "Well, it was nice seeing you again. Take care." As he tried to walk away, she grabbed his jacket.

"Mr. Stokes." She took a note out of her purse. "I want you to have this." She put it in his hand and walked away.

Walking back inside the supermarket, he had a strange look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Greg asked.

"Does this look like a phone number to you?"

Greg nodded. "Looks like it. Why?"

"Because Mrs. Douglas just gave it to me."

"Oooh, someone made a good impression," Greg teased.

* * *

Over the next few days, Nick thought he'd lost his mind. He thought he'd seen Mrs. Douglas on several occasions somewhere in the crowds he passed by. "At least three times. Yeah. She was just there, sometimes even watching me."

"Nick, I think you should take it easy with the pain killers. They seem to be getting to your head," Greg said worried as the two sat down in the break room.

"I'm not taking any. I know it sounds crazy, but I'm pretty sure it was her."

" 'Pretty' sure?"

"There's a lot of women looking like her, I can't be absolutely sure. I never talked to her when I saw her."

"So what if it was her? It's a strange coincidence."

Nick nodded thoughtful. He got startled by the ring of his cell phone. "Stokes? Oh, uh... Hi. No. No, I don't think that's a... Yes, I can't I... Mhm... But... Thanks for your call... Bye." He hung up, giving Greg a strange look. "That was her."

"...What?"

"She just called me and asked me out for dinner."

"So, what did you say?"

Charlotte Knotts, the new ballistics tech, walked in with a big smile. "We all could come with you!"

Greg laughed. "Yeah, wouldn't **that** be fun, Nick?"

With her big smile only getting bigger, Charlotte sat down at the table closely to Greg. She was a beautiful woman in her late 30ies, 5'8'' tall, shoulder length blonde hair, gorgeous hazel eyes, slender, but rather muscular built and a cute smile. She knew she was beautiful and wasn't too shy to show off her good looks, either.

"No, Charlotte, you don't get it. She's a victim's widow. It would be highly inappropriate to go out with her."

"Yeah well, then..." She turned to face Greg. "Just you and me, huh?"

Greg laughed, not getting the hint. "It just wouldn't be the same without Nick and the crazy widow."

Disappointed by the rejection, Charlotte got off her seat to fix herself a cup of coffee.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Nick asked rather desperate.

"Nothing. You told her you didn't want to go on a date and that's it. Why are you so worried about this?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, I just have a bad feeling about it."

"Don't worry. She's probably just feeling lonely and thought she could try her luck. I'm sure you won't be hearing from her again."


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm glad you liked the first chapter, hope you'll enjoy the following, too! :)**

* * *

Greg was only kind of right about the woman not bothering Nick again. Mrs. Douglas stopped contacting Nick, but his relationship with her didn't end yet. The case was still open and Greg was working on it. He was at Mrs. Douglas' house while Nick was on his way to a crime scene when he received a call. "Stokes. What are you talking about? What? But... Alright, I'll be over in half an hour. I'll hurry."

* * *

Nick drove over to Mrs. Douglas' house because Greg had asked him to over the phone. "Where is she?" he asked his younger colleague as he walked in.

"In the bedroom. She said she won't open the door until you're here." Greg walked Nick over to the bedroom. It was the room where her dead husband was found in.

"What happened? Why is she in there?"

"I don't know, I... We talked about the case and... My phone rang. When I came back she was gone. She then cried and screamed in the bedroom, said she needed you here..."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "What the hell?! You asked me to come here for this drama?!"

"I think she's having a nervous breakdown or something, Nick. What was I supposed to do? Just leave her like that?"

Nick gave Greg a look as he rolled his eyes and proceeded to knock on the bedroom door. "Mrs. Douglas, it's me, Nick Stokes from the crime lab, I..."

He couldn't even finish his sentence, she quickly opened the door when she heard his voice. "Thank god you're here..."

"...Why don't you come out?" He said as he reached out his hand to her.

She grabbed it and pulled herself close to him, hugging him. She started crying again. "I was so scared."

They stood there for a moment before Nick pulled back. "What scared you?"

She didn't answer, she just looked over to Greg rather terrified.

"...Him?"

She nodded.

"What?!" Greg said outraged. "What are you talking about?!"

"Can you send him out?" she asked.

"Uh... Sure... Uhm, Greg, could you give us a moment?"

"But I..." He sighed defeated. "Whatever."

While he walked out, Nick and the widow sat down on the couch in the living room. "Would you mind telling me why you were scared of him? He's a nice guy and a great CSI."

"Yeah I know that... but all those scars on his arms... What's up with that?" she asked as she slowly scooted over closer to him.

"He's been through a lot in the past weeks, it's not his fault and nothing you should be worried about," he explained, a little shocked she was frightened by this. Some scarring on his wrists remained from the Neil Novak martyrium he had to endure. Some bruising was still visible on his face, as well, as it had only been a few weeks since he was saved.

She gently put her hand on Nick's knee. "Well it just reminded me of the horrible things that happened to my husband..."

Nick looked at the hand she placed on his knee. It slowly went up to his thigh. "...Mrs. Douglas, it's nice to see you're fine. Me and my colleague will give you some space now, alright? ...You need some rest." He wanted to get off his seat, but she kept him from doing so.

"I don't feel tired..." She put her other hand on his chest. "...at all."

"Yeah but..." He gently grabbed her hands to get them off of him. "It's time for me to go." He got up, grabbed Greg's kit and walked out.

* * *

"What did you two talk about?" Greg asked as the two were walking towards their cars.

Nick shook his head as he handed Greg his kit.

"Is something wrong? Did she tell you why she was scared?"

"You reminded her of her husband and what happened to him."

"How did I do that? We hardly got the chance to talk about him."

Again, Nick shook his head. He didn't want Greg to know what just happened.

"What? Tell me."

Nick opened the door of his car. "You want to keep working this case, right?" When Greg nodded, he went on, "Then stop asking, you don't want to know."

* * *

"Greg!" Mrs. Douglas said from behind while Greg was on his way to the police department.

He turned around in surprise. "Mrs. Douglas...? What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to apologize for what happened on Tuesday... I didn't mean to be rude."

"...It's alright," he said, not knowing what actually happened. "Are you feeling better now?"

"Yeah, thank you. Now that I know what happened to you I feel much better..."

"...What do you mean?"

"You know... The rape-thing."

"Excuse me?" Greg had a confused look on his face.

"This horrible man raped you. I saw it on the news but didn't know it was you back then." She laughed. "What am I saying? I didn't even know you back then."

Greg felt almost sad and disappointed. And also a little embarrassed. Nick talked to her about it? "He didn't... rape me, he..." His feelings were evident in his face.

She gently put her hand on his arm. "I assumed you tried to kill yourself, something like that! That would've been horrible! But when Nick explained to me that this was you they were talking about on the news... "

"Mrs. Douglas, what can I do for you?" he asked to make her stop talking about this. Not only did she have no clue of what actually happened, he also didn't feel comfortable talking with her about this. The fact that she knew was enough for Greg to consider dropping the case.

"I'm sorry, I kind of got carried away." She laughed. "It's just, when Nick said these things... It's so hard to believe your best friend would do something like that to you! And they didn't say anything about that on the news."

"...Best friend? What..."

"This guy who raped you. Nick said you used to be good friends with him."

Greg had a shocked, disbelieving look on his face. "...I gotta go..."

She grabbed his arm to keep him from leaving just yet. "If you ever need someone to talk, you know where to find me."

"Uh... Thanks but... Well, thanks."

She cleared her voice. "So... Your colleague, Nick... He's not answering my phone calls. Is he alright?"

"...Y-Yeah, he's fine... Why?"

"I was so worried! He said he'd call me. Why else would he ask for my phone number? And when I didn't hear from him I called him up... He's not answering. I thought something might've happened. He has a dangerous job, after all. You of all people should know, right?"

"N-No, he's fine... Don't worry about him." For now, Greg thought. He was so angry at him for telling these strange lies, he had no idea what he'd do to him once he found him.

"I'm so relieved!" She quickly hugged Greg. "Could you do me a favor and give these to Nick?" She handed him an envelope.

"...What's this?"

"Oh, nothing. Just a little something I made to show my gratitude. He saved my life, you know..."

He nodded. "Sure... I'll make sure he gets this..."

"Is he in there?" she asked, pointing at the police department.

"I-I don't know, I don't think so, he's..."

"Ah well, I'll drop by the lab later, alright? Thank you, Mr. Sander!" She gave him a kiss on the cheek and walked away looking quite happy.


	3. Chapter 3

**It's going to get hot in here! ;)**

* * *

Greg tossed the envelope on the break room's table in front of Nick.

"What's this?"

"You tell me. A present your admirer wants you to have," he said quite annoyed.

"What are you talking about?" Nick picked the envelope up from the table.

Greg walked to the coffee machine. "And thanks a lot for telling her Novak raped me. Not only is this not what happened, it's none of her business, either!"

"I... What?" Nick asked confused while he opened the envelope.

"And why on earth would you tell her him and I used to be friends?! I mean..."

"Jesus!"

"Let me guess. Something crazy?" Greg turned around to Nick as he poured some coffee into a cup.

Hodges walked in, glancing at what Nick was looking at. "Whoa! Who's this?"

Nick quickly put it back in the envelope. "Mind your own business, pervert."

"**I'm** the pervert? I'm not the one looking at pornography at work. ...Right now, anyway."

"...Pornography?" Greg asked confused and curious. "Let me take a look."

"No!" Nick said embarrassed, grabbing the envelope. It had some very explicit pictures of Mrs. Douglas in it.

"Come on, share! Don't be egoistical! Who is she? She's hot!" Hodges tried to take the envelope, but Nick wouldn't let him.

"Get away from me!" He hopped off his seat. "Greg, what are you talking about? I didn't tell her anything about Novak. I didn't even mention his name."

"...But you did talk about it?"

"Well, she said she was scared when she saw the scarring on your wrists and..." Nick noticed the look on Greg's face. This was exactly why he didn't want him to know. "...She probably just thought you... But I didn't tell her what happened, and I certainly didn't make up any lies! You know me better than that!"

"So that's what she meant..." Greg shook his head. "It's alright but... Nick, she's sending you nude pictures and... She said weird things, told lies." He had a rather worried look on his face. "She said she was worried because you didn't call her, stuff like that."

Nick looked thoughtful at the envelope. "I need to go talk to Russell."

* * *

"Do you want a restraining order?" Russell put the pictures Nick showed him down on his desk.

"No, I don't think that's necessary. She's probably just lonely and not handling her husband's death very well. I'm not scared or anything. ...Yeah, a little bit creeped out, but... Maybe I should go talk to her? Explain to her why I can't go out with her and..." Nick tried to find a solution.

"...Hope she'll just understand? She obviously has some mental issues and I'm not willing to let her be a risk to you."

Nick shook his head. "Just let me talk to her, I'm sure I'll be able to convince her to leave me alone."

* * *

"I hate heads or tails..." Nick said frustrated in the locker room. "It's no fair, you know. You always choose tail and you always win." It was the next day and Nick still meant to talk to Mrs. Douglas.

Greg laughed. "Are you actually implying I cheat at heads or tails?"

"I don't know how you do it, I just know you do..." Nick said, smiling at him. "Okay, I'm gonna go hit the showers and try to get this stench off of me!" They decided to let a coin decide which one of them would have to go into a dumpster behind a restaurant. Inside that dumpster was a lot of trash, and not all of it was from the restaurant. Most of it was from a dead body lying in front of the dumpster. Most of that body's intestines were inside the dumpster. The CSI jumpsuit Nick was wearing was soaked in bodily fluids and other things and some of these things got on Nick's skin, too. He really needed a shower badly.

"Okay. And just so you know, I don't cheat. It's just karma. Remember all the times I had to get into a dumpster just because I was the new guy?"

Nick rolled his eyes laughing. "We all had to go through that when we were the rookie! It's tradition!"

* * *

While Nick took the shower he craved, Mrs. Douglas was walking inside the lab. She looked around with a hopeful smile on her face. She walked through the halls, looking for Nick. All she saw were unfamiliar faces, though. "Excuse me," she said to Robin walking past her. "I'm looking for Nick Stokes. Do you know where I can find him?"

Robin smiled at her. "He just came back from a crime scene and from what I saw, he's probably taking a shower right now. Why don't you wait in the lobby and I'll tell him you wait for him Mrs...?"

"Douglas. Cheryl Douglas." She smiled, shaking her hand. "Thank you very much, dear."

Robin walked on, but Mrs. Douglas had not intended to wait in the lobby. She walked towards the showers. It was just a little past 9 a.m. and the lab was quite empty. Most CSIs were out at a crime scene at the moment and the lab rats were inside their labs doing their jobs. Mrs. Douglas used the opportunity and walked inside the shower. Nick had just put a towel around his hips when she entered. "Mrs. Douglas, what are you doing here?!" he asked quite shocked.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" She blushed. "Your colleague said you were in here. I had no idea..."

Nick was obviously embarrassed. "I-I'll be right out, just give me a minute. How about you wait in the lobby?"

"Of course! I'm so sorry." She smiled as she walked out.

* * *

"Mrs. Douglas..." Nick said with an embarrassed smile as he walked up to her in the lobby. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm so sorry about that Mr. Stokes... I didn't know that's a shower room! Why would your colleague send me there?"

"...I don't know, which one did you talk to?"

"I didn't get her name, but she was a beautiful young lady."

Nick shrugged. "Well, it doesn't really matter."

"But... I couldn't help but notice your wound. Does it hurt?" She hinted on the graze wound he received when he saved her.

Nick shook his head. "It's fine. So what can I..."

She interrupted him. "I feel so guilty. It's all my fault that you got that horrible injury!"

Nick was starting to get annoyed by her. "Why did you want to see me?" He thought about talking to her about the pictures.

"Well it's been three days since we last bumped into each other and... You do realize I gave you my phone number, right?"

"...What? ...Yes I did, but..."

Greg walked over to the two. "Oh, Mrs. Douglas! Nice to see you."

"Greg, dear. Hello." From day one she called him by his first name. It was rather uncommon for victims and their relatives to do that, but she was a rather uncommon woman.

"I meant to call you later today to talk some things through about the case. But since you're already here, we might as well do it now if you've got time," he explained.

Mrs. Douglas looked at Nick for a moment, then over to Greg. "Sure. What a lovely coincidence I'm already here, right?" She laughed.

They walked away and left Nick with a confused look on his face. He wondered himself why he didn't mention the pictures.

* * *

The following day, Nick got surprising news. "Sexual harassment?!" he exclaimed. "Russell, that's not true!"

"I know that, Nick. Now sit down. It's gonna be fine."

"I never touched her! She was the one coming on to me!"

"You mean there was more than the pictures?"

Nick nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Nick shrugged. "I didn't think it was anything serious. She just lost her husband, she's probably scared and lonely and..."

Russell shook his head. "Did you tell anyone that she was hitting on you on her couch?"

Nick shook his head.

"Not even Greg?"

"No, I..." He explained why he was there in the first place and why he didn't want to tell Greg. Not only was he a bit embarrassed, he also didn't want to tell him because he knew he'd ask questions. This, Nick thought, could've led to him having to tell Greg why she was scared of him. Obviously, this came out eventually, but he didn't think about filling Greg in then.

"And now... Did you tell me everything?"

"Well... one more thing..." Nick went on to tell him about the day before, when she walked into the shower. "This is a nightmare!"

"Okay, listen. We'll let the lawyers take care of this, alright? Don't contact her, don't answer her calls. Just stay calm, this will go away, I'm sure."

* * *

While Nick was at the lab, talking things through with Russell, Greg was at Mrs. Douglas' home, talking to her about the case. After everything that happened he seriously considered giving up the case, but he wanted to close it. He had no idea about the sexual harassment allegations. "Thank you," he said to her as she gave him a cup of tea. "Now, could you tell me who Matt Ruiz is?"

Again, just like when Matt Ruiz, the man who shot at Nick, was there, she was getting angry again. "This son of a bitch tried to ruin my marriage! He was my husband's best friend and... He once tried to rape me."

Greg looked surprised. "...Rape you? What happened?"

While they were talking about it, her phone rang. "Excuse me, Greg..." She went into the next room to answer. "...What do you mean? What pictures? ...Oh, I see. Thank you for your call."

Greg couldn't help but overhear the conversation, but he had no idea what it was about. "Is everything alright?"

Again, she seemed upset. "Would you excuse me for a moment?" She walked into the bedroom. A few minutes after, she released a dreadful scream.


	4. Chapter 4

**Here we go again! Have fun!**

* * *

"It's her word against yours," Nick's lawyer said to him as they were sitting in Brass' office. Brass and Russell were present as well.

"But Greg can verify that she wanted me to have the pictures," Nick explained. Mrs. Douglas claimed the nude pictures she sent Nick were stolen from her bedroom while he was working the case in her home. "She gave them to him."

"He's a useless witness."

"...Excuse me?"

"Who's gonna believe a witness who doesn't even remember what happened when he was being kidnapped?" The lawyer was obviously talking about the Neil Novak incident and how Greg pretended not to remember most of the time he was being captured. Except for Nick and Russell, no one found out he lied, they all believed he didn't remember.

"What kind of lawyer are you? This has nothing to do with what happened to him weeks ago!"

"I'm only saying what Mrs. Douglas' Lawyer will tell you. He's not a reliable witness and they won't accept his testifying for a friend."

"What about Hodges? He saw Greg handing me the envelope," Nick said confident.

The lawyer gave Nick a look. "That's not enough. It's like I said. Your word against hers. It's best to settle this out of court."

"...Settle?! No, I want to fight this. She won't just get away with this."

"Maybe it's best just to settle..." Russell suggested.

"What?! You can't be serious!"

"Come on, Nick, we all know you're innocent. She's a crazy woman. No one would win in this if you'd drag this into a courtroom."

Nick shook his head. "Settling out of court is like saying I did it. I don't want anyone to believe these rumors!"

"Settling this would only mean that you're smarter than to let your pride get in the way of your career. Be smart, settle this."

* * *

While Nick had some time to think things through, Greg was dealing with a different kind of trouble. Mrs. Douglas was, once again, locked inside her bedroom. She cried quite loudly. "Mrs. Douglas, please come out of there!"

"When is Nick gonna come here?!" she yelled from the other side of the door.

"He... can't come, he's..." Greg tried to find an excuse for his friend. He didn't plan on calling him again to get this crazy woman out of her bedroom. Especially not since she started telling lies and sending Nick nude pictures. Instead, he contemplated calling for some backup. As he grabbed his cell phone he wandered through the house. He stopped dialing when he noticed something. "Mrs. Douglas..." He picked up a few news articles that had been printed out from the kitchen counter. "Have you been looking into..."

She opened the door. "What are you doing there?"

Greg turned around. He had a rather angry, but also confused, look. "Did you collect news articles about what happened to me?!"

"I want to see Nick **now**!" she yelled, fiercely pointing a gun at him.

* * *

Mrs. Douglas commanded Greg to sit down on the couch in the living room. "Here, call him and tell him to get here." She handed him his cell phone.

The front door opened. For a second, Greg put on a hopeful smile, thinking someone might come to his rescue. He watched a stranger walk in. "Hey Cheryl. What did you want me to help you with?" He asked as he walked into the living room. He stopped when he saw her pointing a gun at Greg. "...What' going on?"

"Randall, thank god you're here!" she exclaimed.

"Who's this? ...Did he try to hurt you?"

While she nodded, Greg quickly tried to explain. "No, I'm working with the crime lab and..."

"That the one you're suing for sexual harassment?!" The man quickly walked over to Greg and punched him in the face. Mrs. Douglas didn't stop him at first, she just watched as Greg tried to fight the man off. Neither did he get a chance to fight back, nor to explain what was going on. The man pulled out a syringe from a sideboard and stuck it into Greg's neck.

* * *

Nick was on his way to a crime scene not too far away from Mrs. Douglas' house. He had a lot on his mind and didn't feel too comfortable being near that woman's home. But he tried to keep it together, keep his emotions in check. He felt mostly anger, anyways, and this was never helping him with anything. It was hard not to let the anger get the best of him, though, since he was trying to contact Greg for almost three hours now. He wanted to tell him about the sexual harassment suit. "Come on, man, pick it up!" he said while he kept trying to reach him. He threw his cell phone on the passenger seat quite angrily when, again, Greg didn't pick up.

* * *

Greg was AWOL for almost three hours. Neither Russell nor Nick were worried about that since they thought he was at Mrs. Douglas', working on the case. They had no idea what actually happened. He slowly opened his eyes when the drugs he had been knocked out with wore off. He had no recollection of the last few hours and was therefore quite surprised and confused when he woke up in his car without remembering getting in. Looking around quite confused, only now was he noticing the stinging pain on his face. He looked down on his shirt to see some blood stains on it. Carefully touching the hurting area, he found this was not where the blood was coming from. Instead, it was his bleeding nose.

Outside his window, he noticed where he was, a really shady part of town. He also noticed that the trunk was open, as well as the right door in the back of the car. Inside his car was nothing but himself. Everything he kept in here had been stolen. He patted himself down to find his cell phone and wallet gone. Helplessness and fear quickly crawled up on him in this strange, confusing and scary situation. He had no idea what happened and how he was supposed to get home. He knew driving wasn't an option with the state he was in, but he also knew walking around in this neighborhood at night was not a smart idea, either. As he tried to calm down and think of the safest way home, Nick drove up.

He saw Greg's car parked in this shady neighborhood he was just driving through. "What the hell?" He stopped and got out. "Greg, what are you..." When he noticed all the blood, the bruises and that a window of the car had been smashed in, he realized something was wrong.


	5. Chapter 5

**Is it wrong that I love writing these dangerous situations for our beloved Greg? :)**

* * *

"I don't know."

"Really? Or are you again..."

"No, I mean it! I don't know, Nick!" Greg yelled at him. He was just about to get out of his hospital bed. "Why should I be lying?"

"I don't know, I'm sure you'd find a reason," Nick replied a little bitter. Weeks have passed and Nick still couldn't quite forgive Greg for lying, although he knew he, somehow, did the right thing.

Greg gave him a look. "Could you stop attacking me for a while and think about how I'm feeling right now?"

"I'm sorry. It's just, you scared me... I thought you were dead."

"Yeah well I'm not. But I'm pissed. I can't believe this is happening again..." He stood up, then felt a bit dizzy and sat down again. "Could you hand me my clothes, please?"

As Nick did, he asked, "Why? You're not planning on leaving just yet, do you?"

"Why not? I'm okay, I..."

"You just got here an hour ago. Unconscious and beaten! No way they're gonna let you leave."

Greg rolled his eyes. "It almost doesn't even hurt."

"Greg, come on. They need to find out why you don't remember. You could have some serious head trauma..."

The doctor walked in. "Everything looks fine. Aside from the black eye and the bloody nose we can't find any injuries."

Greg smiled relieved, but Nick wasn't all too content with this. "So why doesn't he remember what happened?"

"We're still waiting for the tox results, but it's very likely he was drugged."

"Who would want to drug you... again?!" Nick said outraged.

Greg didn't pay attention to him. "Can I go home now?" he asked his doctor.

He nodded. "Your vitals are looking good and aside from low blood pressure, I think you're good to go."

* * *

Greg was supposed to take it easy for the next few days, but he couldn't rest quite so quickly. Nick insisted he talked to Russell first to find out what happened as soon as possible.

"The last thing I remember is leaving the lab. I was on my way to Mrs. Douglas' but I guess I didn't make it there." He laughed a bit, trying to lighten up the mood.

Neither Nick nor Russell laughed, though. "And that's it? Nothing else?"

He shook his head.

"Sara processed his car. She didn't find a sign of an accident, it looks like he just pulled over. There was no sign of a struggle in or near the car, either," Nick explained.

"So how did he get the black eye and bloody nose?"

"Well maybe there wasn't a fight. Maybe someone asked me to pull over and then hit me." Greg scratched his neck.

"His wallet and cell phone are gone, so... looks like a robbery."

"Who's dumb enough to rob a CSI?" Russell said a bit disbelieving.

"It's a shady neighbourhood, these people there rob priests. They have no scruples. Everyone's fair game." Nick tried to make some sense of this.

"But this theory only works when he wasn't drugged. Robbers usually don't drug their victims." Russell looked a bit thoughtful as he watched Greg scratch his neck repeatedly. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nothing, it just itches like hell."

"Did the doctor say what it is?"

"No, I didn't tell him."

Nick took a closer look. "I think I know what this is..."

* * *

All three of them hurried down to pathology. David applied a blue liquid to confirm Russell's and Nick's suspicion. "Something's been injected into your neck..."

Henry texted Russell to let him know about the results of Greg's tox screen. "Roofies again," he said surprised.

Greg shook his head desperately. "What's going on? This isn't Novak's work, is it?!"

Russell patted Greg's shoulder. "I doubt that. I'm sure it's a coincidence. We'll find out what's going on." He tried to sound as sincere as possible, but this thought had crossed his mind, too. It could be someone working for Novak. It was just too weird to be a coincidence, he thought. Still, before they knew anything, he didn't think it would help to alert Greg.

"You know, he had some black stains on his fingertips when I found him," Nick looked thoughtful. "Maybe ink?" It didn't take them long until they suspected Mrs. Douglas' involvement. They had no idea why or how, but since he was on his way to her home, and given the recent events with her, they figured this was a possibility. To top off the confusion, Nick had just received a text message sent from Greg's phone. "Greg, is there any chance you sent me a text message with time delay?"

He shrugged. "I don't think so, why?"

"Because I just received one asking me to meet you in two hours near where you were found..."

Greg took a look at the phone. "I don't know that address... Or at least I don't think I do." He shook his head. "I really don't know, I'm sorry..."

"You know what, maybe you should go home and get some rest. I'll check this text message out. Russell and I will find out what happened with you, alright?"

Greg nodded tiredly. It was an exhausting day for him but he was sure he wouldn't be able to get any sleep tonight.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to update, but I'm frankly having a bit troubles with this story at the moment. Not sure in what direction I want it to go next. More angst or something else... Any thoughts? ;)**

**But don't worry, I won't abandon it! Hope you like the following chapter!**

* * *

While Greg went home to rest, Nick decided to go to the place he was asked to. Since he couldn't be sure it was safe to go there, he brought an officer with him.

"You think Greg really asked you to go here?" officer Spencer asked, looking around. All he could see was homeless people, used needles, empty bottles and stuff like that. The stench of urine and all other kind of nasty things was in the air. This was not a safe neighborhood and there was no reason Nick could think of that Greg would want him to come here.

"Well, I considered it a possibility when I wasn't sure where it was. But now that I see it, there's no way in hell Greg would want to be here... or want me to be here."

"That poor guy. He must be scared and all that. Maybe I should pay him a visit after my shift."

Nick rolled his eyes. He still didn't like Spencer and he still thought his obsession over Greg was weird. "We should probably go." When the two turned around, they heard something coming from some bushes. They pulled out their guns. As they approached that bush, they saw a rat running out of it. Both startled a bit and then sighed relieved. "Let's get the hell out of here..."

* * *

"Did you get a chance to talk to Mrs. Douglas yet?" Nick asked Russell as they met in the lab's lobby.

"I have. And she claims she's been with a friend the whole day."

"And you believe her?"

"Well, I also talked to her friend and he's the nephew of a judge here in Vegas so... Yeah, I guess I'll have to believe them." Russell grabbed an envelope addressed to him from Judy, the girl sitting at the lab's reception.

"Did she sound like she was telling the truth?"

He opened the envelope. "She sounded upset. But I've never heard her talk in a calm way." Russell sighed. They were back to nothing. It would stay that way for another few days, but what was inside this envelope changed the way they approached this case. "...Now that's a surprise." He handed it to Nick. It showed pictures of him and officer Spencer at the crappy neighborhood they were at the day before. It also had a note that said 'Greetings from Neil Nowak.'

* * *

Since Greg was feeling quite good after being attacked and drugged once again, he came back to work three days later. He didn't know about the pictures and the note Russell received. It would've been okay with Russell if he would've taken some more days off, but he refused to. He decided to drop the Douglas case, though. Sara was taking over and had been working on it since he left. She had some questions, though, he had to help her with. At least that's what she told him. She was just coming out of the interrogation room where Mrs. Douglas and Randall Worthington, the man who attacked Greg, were sitting in. Randall was holding her hand as Greg was briefly looking through the window. He glared at the man while Sara talked to him. "...Greg?"

"Hm? Uh, yeah?"

"I asked you if..." Again, he stared at him, not listening. "Greg! What's wrong with you? I don't feel like repeating myself a dozen times."

"I'm sorry, it's just... Who is this guy?"

"Who? Randall Worthington? He's a friend of Mrs. Douglas'. Why are you asking?"

He shrugged, not knowing what kind of feeling it was he just felt or why he felt it.

* * *

"I'm telling you, it had to be her!" Nick argued with Russell about whether or not Mrs. Douglas was still a suspect in Greg's case.

"We have absolutely nothing to back that up. Except..."

"Except that she's nuts!"

"But why would she go after Greg? Why would she drug him and leave him there?"

"I... have no idea. Maybe it's her way at getting back at me! Maybe she has something against Greg, who knows?! She said she was scared of him, after all."

Russell put down his glasses as he rubbed his eyes. "Did you find any traces that could lead us to a suspect?"

"Greg's car was full of fingerprints and other evidence. But there were several donors. No wonder, in that part of town. We can be glad we found Greg and the car. It'll take days to go through them all."

"Any matches to Mrs. Douglas?"

Nick shook his head.

"...What about her friend, Worthington?"

"I didn't test yet. I don't have his fingerprints or DNA."

Russell sighed. "Are we finally gonna talk about these pictures and the note?"

"What's there to talk about? It's not from Novak's guys!"

"I know his name is spelled wrong..." The note had Novak spelled with W instead of V. "...But that doesn't necessarily mean it's not legit."

"We all know how Novak operated. His guys were all people who needed to help him because he had some kind of leverage. He's still in a coma, I doubt he can threaten anyone from there."

Russell shook his head. "Paul Sorkin was helping Novak for the fun of it. Maybe there's more like him."

"I won't waste my time on a phantom we don't even know exists when we have the perfect suspect right in front of us."

* * *

Russell asked Sara to join him and Nick in his office. "Why are we not telling him what we're suspecting?" she asked confused. Russell and Nick had agreed on a strategy that involved them first trying to find out whether or not Mrs. Douglas had anything to do with it or not, and if it turned out she didn't, they'd try to find their phantom.

"Because we need a genuine reaction from both of them. Worthington could pick up on Greg's reaction if it's not real and then we won't get what we need," Russell explained. They planned to let Greg talk to Mrs. Douglas and Randall Worthington without letting him know that the CSIs suspect they are behind what happened to him.

"I don't like it, either, but if it helps us convict them we need to do this," Nick chimed in.

"Does he know about the pictures and note yet?" she asked. When both men shook their heads, she went on, "Great. I can't wait to see his reaction when he finds out."

* * *

"Mrs. Douglas, nice to see you again..." Greg said rather insincere. She was, after all, suing Nick for sexual harassment and Greg knew it was a lie.

"Oh, Greg..." Her and Randall shared a look. "Hello..."

"Hello Mr. Worthington, I'm Greg Sanders." Him and Randall shook hands, then Greg sat down.

"I... uh, I'm a little confused. I thought your lovely colleague Sara took over because you were sick or something?" Mrs. Douglas asked curiously.

Greg nodded. The whole time, even when he talked to her, his eyes glanced over to Randall. "It's a little more complicated than that, but... She took over, I'm just helping her a little."

"Oh dear... What happened to your face? Not again this... man, right?" she asked, hinting on his black eye while suggesting Novak might be behind this again."

He shook his head. "Don't worry, I'm fine. So, there's a few questions my colleague needs answered to work the case..."

As Greg was starting to ask these questions, Randall was getting more and more nervous. "Mr. Sanders, is there any particular reason you're staring at me?" he finally asked.

Greg looked a bit surprised and confused. "I'm not." He really wasn't, but kept looking at him because he had a weird feeling about him. He didn't know why. He didn't know that, deep inside, he remembered seeing him before. He also picked up on the fear Randall was feeling. He feared Greg might remember and that this was a trap.

Mrs. Douglas put her hand on Randall's. "I'm sorry, Greg, it's just that we're all on edge right now. You still weren't able to find my husband's murderer, so..."

"We're doing everything we can, I assure you. Now, Mr. Worthington... What's your relationship with the Douglas family?"

"I'm a friend of the family," he replied. "...Is this gonna take any longer? Because I have an appointment in an hour."

Greg kept on asking a few more questions, then he was done. "Alright, I just need a DNA sample and your fingerprints."

"...What?" Randall got off his seat with a resentful look on his face.

"We just need it to rule you out as a suspect. It's common procedure."

"Well... I don't feel comfortable giving you anything."

"Mr. Worthington, it'll only take a minute and will help us find out what happened to Mrs. Douglas' husband."

"He said no," Mrs. Douglas said determined.

Greg didn't quite know what to say. Randall was, after all, not a suspect and Greg thought the only reason they wanted his fingerprints and DNA sample was to rule him out in Mr. Douglas' murder case. It was up to Randall whether or not he wanted to help them and there was nothing Greg could do about it, but he did find it rather odd. Most people who had nothing to hide cooperated. While Greg was about to pack his things and leave the room, Russell and Brass walked in. He looked at them rather confused and questioning while they sat down next to him.

"Mr. Worthington, there's a few more questions we'd like to ask you," Brass said with a smirk on his face.

"What's going on?" Greg whispered to Russell.

"You'll see," he whispered back. "So Mr. Worthington, you and Mrs. Douglas were at home three days ago, you said?"

Both nodded.

"You know, I was a little confused when you acted like you didn't know what had happened to Greg's face. I asked you about it, after all."

"...I was just trying to be polite," she claimed. Her face had gotten angry looking since Brass and Russell walked in. "I didn't want you to feel uncomfortable with me knowing what happened, Greg. I'm sorry."

Greg felt a little lost right now. He had no idea what was going on. Russell told him that Mrs. Douglas and Randall had nothing to do with him getting drugged. Why would he interrogate them again, with him present?

"Your uncle might be a judge here in town, but honestly, I don't care. I'll drag you to court when I get the chance to do so," Brass said.

"A nice ring you got there..." Russell said while pointing on Randall's right hand.

Beads of sweat were appearing on his face. "Thank you..."

"Say, Greg, did you see that ring before?"

"...What?" Greg asked confused.

"Looks a lot like the bruise on your face, don't you think?"

For a moment, everyone in the room was quiet. Greg realized what was going on, and Randall realized that they knew what happened.

"Give us a minute alone with them, will you, Greg?" Brass suggested while keeping his eyes on Randall.

* * *

"Did you know about this?" Greg asked his two colleagues as he walked out of the interrogation room. Sara and Nick were waiting in front of it.

"We did. But we all agreed it would work better if you didn't know about it," Sara tried to explain.

"Why would they do that to me?"

"Maybe their way of getting back at Nick?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Welcome, new readers and Hi to everyone who's been there for a while!**

**Another Chapter for all you guys! Thanks for reading!**

* * *

It didn't take the CSIs long to get a search warrant for Randall Worthington's home. They found surprising evidence like Greg's kit and cell phone. Also, the ring Randall was wearing was a match to Greg's bruise but, more importantly, his blood was found on it. There was no way for Randall to deny the allegations, with or without a judge as an uncle.

"He said he saw you driving up to Mrs. Douglas' house and thought you were Nick. He tried to talk to you, but you were acting aggressively. He acted in self defense when he hit you, then panicked. He went through your stuff and found your ID, and when it turned out you weren't Nick, he decided to drug you and drive your car away from the house," Russell explained to Greg what Randall claimed happened as they were sitting in his office.

"That's ridiculous. Why should he have to defend himself against me?" Greg shook his head.

"I don't believe him, either. Luckily, the way he tried to handle this, a sane jury won't, either."

"What about Mrs. Douglas? Is she involved in this?" Nick asked, leaning against a wall.

"Both claim she didn't even know about this."

"Hard to believe the way she acted in the interrogation room..."

"It's a difficult situation. With Greg's lost memory, Randall's word is all we have. We can prove he did it, but we can't prove what exactly went down. There's no evidence linking Mrs. Douglas to it."

* * *

The CSIs were happy they were able to get Randall Worthington for attacking Greg, but couldn't quite believe Mrs. Douglas was innocent in this. Since Randall admitted to sending the pictures of Nick and Spencer and writing the note signed with Neil Novak, neither Russell nor Nick thought it was necessary to tell Greg about this. They feared it might only tear up the old wounds. He would later find out, though. Russell asked him to come by the office. "What's up, Russell?" he asked rather upbeat as he walked in. He felt quite good since his attacker was behind bars. He sat down opposite his boss.

Russell put his glasses down. "You look good." He smiled.

"I am," he replied. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, Mrs. Douglas, she, uh... She called earlier and asked me to send you over."

"...What? Why?"

"She wants to apologize for everything."

Greg raised an eyebrow. "Is she still suing Nick for sexual harassment?"

Russell nodded.

"She's one crazy lady, huh?" He shook his head.

"So you're not going?"

"Why should I? I don't want to have anything to do with her. Once the case about her husband is closed and Nick's suit is dismissed, she'll be out of all our lives for good."

"Nick's the only reason I'm even telling you about this, actually. I think it could work in his favor if you went."

"What are you talking about?"

"I figured if we give her what she wants, maybe she'll drop the case. You could talk with her about it, try to convince her..."

"What?! No! No, I can't. I resent her for suing Nick. I can't act friendly around her anymore! Plus, she's the reason this Worthington guy attacked me! And she was probably in on it!"

"It's very likely she was just trying to protect her friend. Just the way you could protect yours now." Russell stayed calm, contrary to Greg. "You could save him a lot of trouble."

"But I..." Greg really didn't want to face Mrs. Douglas ever again. But he caved in eventually. "Alright..." He sighed. "If it could really help Nick, I'll go and try to convince her to drop the charges. But that's it, right? After that I'm done?"

Russell nodded. He knew it wasn't an easy task, but he had high hopes for Greg being able to do it.

* * *

Greg tried to convince Mrs. Douglas over the phone to come by the lab later today to talk, but she insisted he stopped by her place. Since they still didn't have any evidence to link her to any crime, Greg thought it would be safe to go there. When he approached the house, chills were running down his spine. Deep down inside he remembered what happened last time he was there. Still not knowing what his subconsciousness was trying to warn him about, he went straight into the dragon's lair.

His hand was shaking as he knocked on the door. Again, his subconsciousness was trying to warn him, but he didn't listen. He thought he was simply scared because of the attack, and that he was being ridiculous since it was Randall Worthington who attacked him, not Mrs. Douglas. He felt like he needed to ignore this fear.

When Mrs. Douglas invited him in, she had a faint smile on her face. "Hello Greg. It's wonderful seeing you."

He nodded as he walked in, trying to fake a smile. He somehow managed to do it, but anyone who knew him better would know it wasn't a sincere smile.

"Please, sit down," she said after leading him into the living room. He sat down on the exact same couch Mrs. Douglas tried to seduce Nick on.

* * *

"...You sent him to Mrs. Douglas' home?" Nick said outraged to Russell. They were standing in front of the DNA lab. "Russell, are you out of your mind?!"

"Calm down and keep your voice down, will you? There's no need to worry. We have absolutely no evidence to even suggest she had anything to do with him being attacked, aside from her behavior in the interrogation room. We have enough evidence to link Worthington to it, though."

"...So? That doesn't mean he's safe with her! What were you thinking?"

"I talked this through with Greg and I frankly don't feel like I have to justify my decisions to you." Russell walked inside the DNA lab to talk with Robin about a case.

Nick followed. "Oh yeah? Well I feel like I deserve an explanation when your decision could endanger one of the team!"

Russell talked with Robin, then turned to Nick again. "You should know me well enough to know that I wouldn't do anything to put anyone of you in danger." He knew Nick wouldn't like to hear that Greg was over there to talk in his favor so he tried to avoid saying this.

"Doesn't look like it at the moment!"

Right when Nick said that, Greg walked in. "Hey guys. Russell, you got a minute?"

"Sure," he said while giving Nick a look. Him and Greg walked out and inside the office.

* * *

"Any luck?" Russell asked while closing the door.

Greg sighed as he sat down. "If I didn't know better, I think I'd believe her, too. She won't drop the case, she was very determined. She even started crying."

"What do you mean, you'd believe her, too? Does she have any evidence?"

Greg shook his head. "The way she's telling the story is just too believable. I think she believes it actually happened. She started shaking when she talked about it, the details she was able to give, she... she sounds like a typical victim of sexual abuse."

"It would definitely help to get a psych evaluation but we don't have any legal backup to ask for this at the moment." Russell made a pause, then went on, "I hate to ask but... Any chance she's telling the truth about this? Maybe he acted inappropriate without even noticing and..."

"No. No way, Russell. Nick's not that kind of guy. She's lying, I'm sure about that."

"Alright. So how did it go in general?"

"She's always fun to talk with..." Greg replied sarcastically with a smile on his face.

"Are you alright, Greg?" Russell asked quite bluntly. When Greg gave him a confused look, he went on. "You don't look too good. Plus, I know you didn't want to do this, but did it anyway for your friend and it didn't even help."

"Are you trying to frustrate me or what?" Greg chuckled.

"I'm trying to look out for you." Russell had a very soft, genuine smile on his face. "You were worried to go there, how was it for you?"

"It was alright," he obviously lied.

"Great, because I need you to go there again."

"...Again?! Why?!"

"...Relax. I just wanted to see if you were lying. You obviously dread the thought of going back there. Why? Did something happen?"

"No, everything was fine... I... I don't really want to talk about it."

"Are you scared of her?"

"What?!" Greg had a very uncomfortable look on his face. "I'm not scared of her! ...It's the house, you know? I don't feel comfortable going there. I don't know why, though..."

"Well it's no surprise. Worthington attacked you in front of it, maybe your subconscious remembers, causing the discomfort."

Greg nodded thoughtful. "I guess I..." he stopped talking once he noticed a piece of paper on Russell's desk. It was a copy of the note Mrs. Douglas and Worthington had sent to make it look like Novak was responsible for the attack. "...What is this?"

Russell grabbed it and put it in a file, one where it didn't belong in, he just wanted to get it out of Greg's sight. "Just something from a case..."

Now it was Greg who knew Russell was lying. "Let me see it."

"I'll fill you in on the case later. I have to meet with Brass in..."

Greg interrupted him. "What is this, Russell?! Why are you lying to me?!"

"...I didn't mean for you to see this. I'm sorry. It's nothing to worry about, really."

"...H-He's still in a coma, right? You would tell me if..."

"Of course. No, it's nothing like that..." He then went on to explain everything. "...And since we knew that Randall Worthington was the one sending this, we didn't feel the need to tell you about it."

Greg was able to calm down a bit. "You should've told me."

"Why? To reopen old sores? Now that you know, does it make you feel any better?"

"Well, no, but..."

"You and Nick need to understand that I need to make some decisions for the sake of you guys or the team sometimes you won't always agree with. But you can trust me."


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry it took me so long to update, guys! Hope this chapter makes it up to you!**

* * *

Greg sat down in the break room to think about what Russell said. The Neil Novak attacks were replaying in his mind as well. He didn't get panic attacks thinking about this anymore like he occasionally did before, but it was still a very unsetteling thought. Nick sat down next to his friend without saying a word. Greg had something to say, though, as he was staring at his hand. "Did Hodges find out what the stains on my fingertips were?"

Nick looked at him rather confused. "Printer ink. Why are you asking?"

"How did it get on my fingers?" he asked thoughtful.

"We didn't give it too much thought, really. Are you alright?"

"You know, Mrs. Douglas has a printer in her living room..."

"Like many people have. Greg, what are you getting at? Do you think Randall Worthington was lying?"

"She knew a lot about the Neil Novak case. ...She also told some lies, but she knew a lot of things she claimed she heard on the news back then. But why would she remember unimportant details about this case?"

Nick raised an eyebrow. "You think you were inside the house before you got attacked?"

"No. I think I was in there **when** I got attacked. The couch, it had new covers. I just remembered. When I was there the last time, it was beige. Today it was a dark brown."

Nick nodded. "Yeah I remember the beige couch, too. Why would she... You're thinking blood drops?"

Greg sighed as he rubbed his eyes. "I was on my way to her place. I must've gotten there and Randall attacked me in the living room, on the couch. Not only did she know about this... She even tried to cover it up, make us believe Novak was behind this..."

Nick didn't know what to say to comfort his friend, so he just put his hand on his shoulder in silence.

* * *

Nick had to stay away from Mrs. Douglas home, there was still the sexual harassment allegations, and Greg was the victim, so he wasn't able to search the house, either. But Sara and Russell were. Lucky for them, Mrs. Douglas wasn't home at the moment. "I got blood," Sara exclaimed while searching the house with blue light. She had put the covers off of the couch, revealing some blood stains.

"Let's get this to Robin ASAP and find out whether it's Greg's or not." Russell walked over to her.

"Even if it isn't, I think I might have something to prove her involvement..." Hodges said from the bathroom. When Russell and Sara joined him in there, he went on. "Look at these bottles. I bet it's what they used to drug Greg with."

* * *

"These documents were printed three days ago." Archie was sitting in front of Mrs. Douglas' computer. They had enough reason to take it to the lab with them.

"They're all about Greg's abduction. What does she want with that?" Sara asked confused.

"She used the same they used to drug Greg with. This also explains the ink on his fingertips. He probably found the printings and started asking questions... It definitely explains the pictures and the note. She knew everything about the Novak case and tried to pin this on him. And since she printed these sheets out days before Greg was attacked, we can prove premeditation."

* * *

Greg tried to forget about the recent news and go on with his workday as usual when Nick walked into the evidence room he was working in at the moment. "Hey, how are you doing?"

"Good," Greg mumbled without looking up from the evidence he was just working on. "We're not going over this again, are we?"

Nick smiled. "Not if you don't want to."

"Great. Because I don't." After a short pause, he went on. "Besides, I'm trying to see the positive side of things. This is good news for the sexual harassment suit."

"I suppose so. But don't you wonder why they did it?"

"Of course. But unless they tell us we won't find out. No need to waste too much time thinking about it."

Nick sat down on a chair. He received a rather annoyed look by Greg. He didn't talk for a moment, but then decided to say what was on his mind. "Do you blame me for this?"

"...What?" Greg was laughing over this thought a bit. "How could this be your fault?"

"Come on." When Greg raised his eyebrows questioning, Nick went on, "This wouldn't have happened to you without me. She's mad at me, not you."

"Does it make you feel any better blaming yourself? I don't blame you, nobody else does. If it's anyones fault, it's mine."

"...How come?"

"Well let's face it, I'm obviously cursed." Greg playfully threw a glove at Nick.

He laughed for a moment, too, then had the serious, guilt-stricken look again. He left the room before Greg could notice that.

* * *

The CSIs had a lot of questions to ask Mrs. Douglas. Only problem was, she was nowhere to be found. Russell and Sara were starting to get nervous about this as they were running around the lab. Greg noticed them from inside the DNA lab as they kept passing it by. He decided to ask them what was going on. "Hey, Sara. What's wrong?"

"Have you seen Nick?" she asked without stopping.

"I believe he was on his way to a witness, why?"

"Follow me!"

* * *

"His cell phone is turned off, as well as his radio," Russell said while sitting down in his office.

"I just talked to him an hour ago. What do you think happened?" Greg asked rather nervous.

"We can't reach Mrs. Douglas, but we're pretty sure she knows about our findings in her home. Her sister was there when we searched the house, she sure told her about it."

"Well, what do you think she'll... do to him?"

"We don't know. We're not even sure she's with him, it could all be a coincidence but... We're worried..." Sara had a frown on her face.

"So, what should we do?"

* * *

"I'm sorry!" a young man screamed desperately.

"Wasn't I specific enough for you, you useless piece of shit?!" Mrs. Douglas yelled while throwing books at the man. "Only use as many force as necessary! He looks like he was hit by a train!"

"Calm down, Cheryl. He only needs some washing up and then he'll look fine! He was fighting back, what else was I suppose to do?!"

"How about use the drugs I gave you?! Huh?! Is there anything you **can** do right, Travis?!" Nick was lying on the ground, his face beat up pretty badly, blood all over him. He was unconscious at the moment. "Are you even sure he's still alive? I'm telling you, if he's dead you..."

"He's fine! Don't worry. He'll wake up soon, I'm sure." Travis wasn't sure at all. He feared Nick might be dying right now, but he was afraid to tell her. He knew Nick needed some medical attention soon. "Come on, just do whatever you wanted to do while I go outside. Let's get this over with."

"Oh no, you're not getting off just like that. Help me tie him up."


	9. Chapter 9

**It's getting more exciting! Enjoy!**

**And thanks for the reviews :)  
**

* * *

Greg was sitting on the computer quite concentrated.

"What are you doing?" Sara asked while she walked in with a bunch of files.

"Mrs. Douglas told me about a house near a lake she bought two years ago... I'm trying to find out where it is."

"You think they might be there?"

"Good place to do... whatever it is she wants to do."

Sara nodded. "All patrol officers are keeping their eyes open. Maybe one of them will find Nick's car."

Greg sighed. "I just don't get it. At first she seemed to be quite into Nick. Then these allegations..."

"He rejected her, she reacted to it. It's nothing unusual in stalkers like her. We see these things at work all the time."

"Yeah... And we both know how these things usually end..."

Brass walked in. "They found his car."

* * *

The good news was that they had found Nick's car. The bad one was, it didn't help them find him. It was parked a few blocks from the lab and there wasn't any sign of a struggle. They would later find out that the struggle took place just a few steps away from the car, outside of a supermarket around the block. Greg suspected that this finding won't be much help to them, so he decided to pursue his own lead. "Yeah but Russell, everyone else is out! Let me..."

"_No," _Russell said over the phone._ "You can't be involved in this case, you know that! You're a victim and victims don't go catch the bad guys."_

"But we aren't even sure it's Mrs. Douglas we're looking for. What am I suppose to do, sit here and wait until Nick's body is found?!"

"_Give that information to Brass and..."_

Greg interrupted him. "He's busy, too."

"_Then give it to some officers and let them check it out. But you can't go with them."_

Greg rolled his eyes as he hung up. After thinking about it for a second, he had an idea.

* * *

"Wow, that place is beautiful! I wish I had a house here!" officer Spencer exclaimed as he parked his patrol car near the lake house Mrs. Douglas had been talking about.

Greg had finally found out where it was. Russell forbid him to go there, but he didn't care right now. He knew it was probably a bad idea, but he wanted to be there for Nick and he dreaded the thought of police officers checking this place out alone. Greg remembered how comforting it was to see one of his friends after being in a dangerous, life-threatening situation. He didn't want Nick to feel left alone by his friends when he would be found. He deserved more than that. "Could you please concentrate?! Gosh, I'm starting to regret taking you with me."

"Yeah but I was the only cop willing to take **you** with me, so stop it. Everyone knows you're not supposed to be involved in this case. But if anyone asks, I had no idea. Got it?"

"Sure..." He gently pushed Spencer to make him go faster.

"Wait. You're staying in the car."

"What?! Spencer, come on!"

"Listen, I don't mind getting in trouble because I brought you here. What I would mind, though, is getting you killed while you shouldn't even be here. You'll wait for my sign while I go check it out."

"We have no idea how many people to expect in there! You'd have to be suicidal to go in there all by yourself!" Greg knew exactly that it was common procedure in a situation like that to stay behind as a CSI and let the cop do the cop work. But in this case, he didn't care.

Spencer simply rolled his eyes. "It's not my first day on the job, you know? Just let me handle this. Stay alert, but **stay** here."

* * *

Spencer sneaked towards the house while Greg watched him from afar. The officer had his gun drawn and was ready for whatever might expect him in there. Or so he thought. First, he tried to look through the windows. The shades were down, he didn't get a chance to look inside. Then, he tried to silently open the front door. He was quite surprised when it did open – he didn't know the people inside saw him approaching the house and unlocked it for him.

* * *

Greg was getting more and more impatient. He watched Spencer walk inside the house and thought this was a bad sign – neither Nick nor Mrs. Douglas were inside the house, he was sure. He waited some more but quickly got suspicious. Why would Spencer take so long to come back out if there wasn't anyone inside? Greg took out his radio and called for backup. It was a busy night for the Las Vegas Police, so he had to wait several minutes for backup to arrive. He now had the choice to either wait for backup to arrive, or go in there and find out what was taken the officer so long. As he had proven in the past, Greg wasn't the type of guy to just wait around while someone else might be in trouble. He decided to find out what was going on inside that lake house.

Just like Spencer, he tried to sneak up to the house. Unlike Spencer, he managed to do this without the people inside the house hearing or seeing him. He briefly looked around and saw a lot of blood drops and smears. Even on the door was one smear. With his gun drawn, he put his ear close to the door, trying to hear how far away Spencer and the others might be. He heard a noise, but it seemed to be quite far away, so he decided to take his chances and open the door. Taking small, quiet steps inside, he tried to stay as alert as possible.

"Does anyone know you're here?!" he heard a man yell from upstairs. Before Greg decided to go up there, he walked around the first floor. When he cleared it, he made his way up.

* * *

"Sara, have you seen Greg?" Russell asked as both were hurrying around the lab. The whole lab was busy looking for Nick, but they also had to work other important cases. It was hard to find anyone not busy at the moment.

"I think Hodges said him and Spencer were following some lead on Nick's disappearance."

"...What?! He's trying to find Nick? I told him to stay here and let the cops do the work!"

Sara patted Russell's back. "You should've known better." She smiled. "Want me to call him?"

* * *

Greg had reached the second floor. The voice was getting louder and he could also hear Spencer's voice. While meaning to approach the room the voices were coming from, his cell phone rang. It was on vibration, but still made some noise. He hugged the wall near the door.

"What's that?!" Travis was running outside the bedroom, looking around. "Where did that come from?!"

"I'm sure whatever it is is gone now... And will stay outside," Spencer said, hoping Greg would take the hint. He did understand what the officer was trying to tell him, but there was no way he would just leave. When Travis turned around again, Greg threw a pen down the stairs. "...It's coming from downstairs!" Travis quickly ran down.

* * *

Greg used the opportunity. "Spencer, where's Nick?" he whispered as he hurried inside the bedroom.

"You need to leave! Call for backup and wait outside! Quick!" Spencer replied, trying to whisper, too. He was too nervous to keep his voice down, though.

Greg noticed that the bedsheets had lots of blood stains on them. "...Is this Nick's? Where is he?"

"Don't you pay any attention?! Get out before they're back!"

"Too late for that..." Mrs. Douglas said, standing in the doorway. She had a big rifle in her hands. "What are you doing here, Greg?" She walked up closer to him.

"Mrs. Douglas, what the hell are you doing? Where's Nick?" He pointed his gun at her.

"I'm waiting for him to wake up... He just won't wake up..." She sniffed.

Greg had a terrified look on his face. All over this place was a lot of blood, he feared his friend might already be dead. "Bring me to him. Maybe I can wake him up..."

"How about you shut up and put your gun down? This is my house, it's impolite to wield your gun at me like that!"

"I'm sorry, I can't do that. Please, you love Nick, don't you? You want him to be fine... Let me help you wake him up..."

"Oh Greg, I really wish you didn't come here. I liked you."

"These cheap tricks won't work on her..." Travis said from behind, putting his gun at the back of Greg's head. "Now put your gun down."

Greg had no other choice but to follow the order and put the gun down. He then put his hands up. "Please, Cheryl... I worry about Nick and I'm sure you do too... You don't want him to die, do you?"

"She's not gonna fall for that..." Travis said as he pistol-whipped Greg.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys! Hope you're having a great Sunday! Here's the latest chapter, enjoy!**

* * *

~Lying in a pool of blood, Greg opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was officer Spencer, a single shot in the head was what it needed to silence him forever. But right now, Greg didn't care. He needed to find Nick. He ran downstairs with the gun Spencer had in his holster. With strength he didn't know he had, he kicked open the door to the living room, where Mrs. Douglas and her partner in crime were about to kill Nick. She was sitting on top of an unconscious Nick with a big knife in her hand, pressing it against his chest. Travis was fiercely walking up to Greg. Without hesitation, the young CSI pulled the trigger of the gun he had in his shaking hands. The first bullet went through Travis' chest, the other in Mrs. Douglas left temple.~~~

"...Wake up! Come on, man! Get up!" These words could be heard from a short distance as Greg slowly regained consciousness. He was lying on the cold tiled floor of the bathroom. His forehead was lying in a puddle of blood as he woke up, trying to remember what just happened. It was all blurred, though, and all he could think of at the moment was how sick he felt and how much his head hurt. His side was hurting, as well. He didn't know how that happened, but would later find out that Mrs. Douglas kicked him while he was unconscious. Supporting himself on the bathtub, he managed to get up quite slowly. He had no recollection of how he ended up in the bathroom, and was confused over the dream he just had. For a moment, he thought it was real and Mrs. Douglas and Travis were dead, while his friend Nick was saved. Officer Spencer being alive just didn't fit with this kind of imagined reality and he knew it was all just a dream. When he finally managed to sit up, he looked around the room, trying to figure out where he was.

"Hey! Untie me!" Spencer said, sitting on the floor, tied to the toilet. His feet were tied together.

Greg's right eye showed a rather blurry sight, which got him quite worried. It also helped him remember he'd been hit on the head, though. As did the blood on the floor, on his head, face and his clothes. It wasn't much blood, but enough to let him know he was injured. He sighed before he decided to stand up. He staggered around the room feeling quite dizzy, but he didn't want to sit down again, he wanted to get out of here. "...What happened? Where are they? ...Where's Nick?"

"They're downstairs. You have to untie me before they come back. Quick!"

Greg stumbled over to the officer. Trying to untie him, he noticed how bad his eyesight really was at the moment. He didn't even get the knot at the first try because he didn't see where it was, but finally managed to untie Spencer's hands. He walked towards the door, but Spencer stopped him.

"Wait! I think my arm's broken... You have to untie my feet, too."

Greg nodded, but didn't understand what Spencer was saying. He walked towards the door, anyways.

"Hey! Don't leave me! What the hell's wrong with you?!"

He didn't waste a thought on Spencer and walked out of the room to find out what happened to Nick. Slowly and wobbly he walked out. When he heard noise coming from downstairs, he stopped to listen.

"Get his head!" Mrs. Douglas said from downstairs.

"But... there's so much blood!" Travis replied repulsed.

"No..." Greg said to himself, sitting down on the stairs defeated. Only then he noticed all the blood on the stairs. It wasn't there when he climbed them up earlier. Without any kind of weapon, dizzy, bad eyesight and with a very high chance of Nick already dead and dismembered, there was no need for him to keep fighting. He did what he was supposed to do in the first place – wait for backup to arrive.

Moments later, several police officers stormed the house. "Freeze! Put that down!" they yelled from the first floor.

"Put your hands up!" one of them said, running up the stairs, pointing his gun at Greg. It took him a second to notice the CSI vest.

Greg put his hands up and pointed to the bedroom. "Officer Spencer might need an ambulance..."

The cop nodded and shouted down to his colleague, "We'll need another ambulance!" Him and two others cleared the second floor, then walked Greg down.

"I-Is he in there...?" Greg asked scared, looking at the kitchen door.

One of the officers nodded. "We found Stokes. Horrid scene... Do you want to see him?"

Greg sobbed. "I-I don't think I can..."

Paramedics hurried inside. Some of them walked upstairs to take care of Spencer, others walked into the kitchen. Russell followed behind but stopped once he saw the young CSI. "Greg! Are you alright? Where's Nick?"

Greg just shook his head, sitting down at the end of the staircase, unable to speak at the moment. He was breathing quite heavily as tears were streaming down his face.

"Hey, we need a paramedic!" Russell said with a worrisome look on his face. A paramedic was walking up to Greg instantly.

"I don't need a paramedic, Russell." The paramedic wanted to put his hands on Greg's head to examine the wound, but Greg shoved him away. "Don't!" he yelled aggressively. He felt responsible for what happened to Nick and didn't feel like he deserved any attention at all at the moment.

Russell looked a bit surprised and worried as he sent the paramedic away again.

"He's in there," one officer said, leading Russell into the kitchen. When he returned a few minutes later, his hands were stained in blood. He had a faint smile on his face, confusing Greg with this. Russell sat down next to his colleague, sighing in relief. "I think it looks a lot worse than it actually is. It's gonna be alright." He put his hand on Greg's shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"But... What are you... You... you're talking about Nick?"

"Yeah. He looks horrible. But the paramedics say he'll be fine. They thought he was unconscious, but he's drugged up, really."

Greg's eyes widened. He thought Nick was dead. His body lying inches away from his severed head. He had this awful picture in his mind. "What...?"

Russell chuckled a bit. "I know it sounds weird, but that's a good thing. He doesn't have any head trauma, he's just drugged up... that's why he's not awake."

Greg sobbed. "Russell I... I thought Nick was dead!"

"...Huh? No, he's fine. Didn't you go in there and see how he was?"

"Of course not! I thought he was decapitated or something!" When he received a highly confused look, he explained what he heard earlier and what kind of image this had put in his head.

Russell laughed. "Oh Greg... I'm so sorry, I didn't know. He'll be as good as new, you hear me?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Short new chapter! A longer one will follow soon!**

* * *

"...Still blurred..." Greg was at the hospital getting his eyes checked out. The Doctor nodded and walked out of the room for a moment. "Shouldn't you be with Nick right now... Just like myself?" he said to Russell who was standing right next to him.

"He's gonna be fine. He's asleep now. We'll see how he's doing later." Russell gave him a smile. He worried about Greg as much as he did about Nick.

Greg was seesawing his leg nervously. "...I'm sure my eyes will be fine. Can we go see Nick now?"

"Sit still for a moment, will ya? You're lucky you don't have a concussion or anything like that, let's hope your eyes are fine, too."

Greg was, in fact, worried about himself, too, but tried to block it out. He decided to concentrate on worrying about Nick instead. Russell just wouldn't let him. "I'm not sure I wanna find out what's wrong with my eye. What if..."

Russell stopped him right there. "Whatever it is, we'll deal with it. It could be nothing, you know that."

The doctor walked back in. "Here are your results. Just like I thought, it's just a corneal rupture. You'll need these eye drops three times a day and you'll have to wear an eye patch for the next few weeks and you should be fine." She gave Greg a confident smile.

He sighed quite relieved. He imagined all terrifying scenarios already. "Thank you. That's great news..." He hopped off his chair. "Okay, where's Nick?"

* * *

Instead of finding out how Nick was doing, Russell and Greg were standing in front of a hospital room, looking through the open door. They were talking to a doctor. "So she'll be able to use this in court?" Greg asked calmly. He was raging on the inside.

"That shouldn't be our main concern right now. Will we be able to talk to her?" Russell asked.

The doctor nodded. "She's in a very fragile state right now. The nervous breakdown she suffered surely was part of her acting out like that, but I'm sure there's a pre-existing condition that caused it."

"You don't know what kind, yet?"

"No. Could be anything, really. But right now we can't figure it out. We'll have to wait for her to get better first."

Greg already spaced out once he heard that she could get away with a criminally insane defense. He didn't listen to what they were talking about. Russell needed to address him several times before he'd notice it. "Greg! Are you alright?"

"...Huh? Yeah... Yeah I'm fine." He nodded. "I just can't believe she'll get away with this. Did she say what she planned on doing with Nick?"

"She said she just wanted him to be with her. She wouldn't elaborate on that and I'm not quite sure I want to know." He gave Greg a smile. "Well, we made sure Mrs. Douglas is getting the help she needs, Nick and Spencer are going to be fine, too. How about we both head home and get some rest?"

Greg looked thoughtful into the hospital room Mrs. Doulgas was in. Nurses were taking care of her at the moment. "Nick could've died tonight."

"Yeah well he didn't. He's gonna be fine. And when he wakes up in the morning, I'm sure he'll appreciate to see your rested face. You're not helping him by tormenting yourself. You probably saved his life. Now come on, I'll give you a ride home."

* * *

The next day, Greg stood in front of Nick's hospital room. He'd been standing there for almost 20 minutes now and just couldn't get himself to go in. He was scared. His friend almost died. It was an awful, almost crippling thought and he didn't want to think about that. When he saw the nurse who just walked in walk out of the room again, he figured he had to go inside. He owed it to Nick. "Hey Nick," he said with a faint, fake smile on his face.

"Greg! Good to see you." Nick's smile was a sincere one. "What's with the eye patch? You don't look too good."

Greg nodded. "I'm fine. How are you?" He sat down on a chair next to Nick's bed as he explained the eye patch. They made some small talk for quite some time until some of their colleagues walked in.

"Knock, knock!" Henry said with a big smile on his face, carrying a bag full of take-out food. Hodges and Sara followed inside. "We brought you something to eat!"

"Nobody should have to eat this horrible hospital food, let alone people in pain!" Sara said kidding, patting Nick on the shoulder.

"That's nice of you guys. Thanks."

Sara sat down on Nick's bed while Hodges and Henry grabbed the chairs. The three of them entertained Nick for quite a while. Greg tried to engage in the conversation but he wasn't really in the mood for this upbeat bunch. He stayed there for a while, with a stupid, fake smile on his face until he couldn't take pretending to be in a good mood anymore. He excused himself, claiming Russell needed him at work, and left.


	12. Chapter 12

**Happy Halloween, guys! I planned on doing a short Halloween-story but didn't have enough time or ideas... ;) hope this chapter will make it up to you! Enjoy!**

* * *

Greg didn't know he was actually right when he said Russell needed him at the lab. "Greg, you're early! Good!" Russell said ironic as he grabbed his arm and walked him into the office, where Brass was already waiting for them.

"What's going on?" Greg asked as he sat down.

"How's Nick doing?"

"Fine, I..."

Russell interrupted him. "Good. Here's the thing... Mrs. Douglas claims it was all self defense..."

"...What are you talking about?"

Brass cleared his throat. "She claims that Nick was the one leading her to the lake house and attacked her there... Her friend, Travis Felton, was beating him to save her, she says..."

"What? That's ridiculous. It doesn't even make any sense. She really wants to got with that?"

Brass nodded.

"But we found Nick's car. It was nowhere near that house. There were signs of a struggle!"

"Robin checked the blood for DNA... It wasn't Nick's... It was Mrs. Douglas'," Russell explained with a serious look on his face."

"...So?" Greg was angry and it showed. He felt like Russell was suggesting Nick was not the victim in this, but in fact, Mrs. Douglas was.

"We found his car in South Vegas. He had no business out there..."

Greg hastily shook his head. "I don't need to hear this. This crazy woman attacked Nick after she tried to frame Neil Novak for attacking me and you're actually considering she's innocent?!"

"Nobody said that, Greg." Brass chimed in. "But her story sounds quite believable..." When Brass saw the look on Greg's face, he quickly went on. "...Except that we all know Nick better than that."

"...Why are we even talking about this? Nobody's gonna believe her anyway, right?"

Russell and Brass shared a look. "It's a little complicated."

"...How?!" Greg got off his seat. "She's nuts, Nick's not. Spencer and I can testify to what really happened! What's complicated about that? Sounds pretty simple to me!"

"Nobody's gonna care what you and Spencer will have to say about this." Russell's serious look got even more serious when he said that.

"...What?"

"I told you to stay away from that case. You were a victim in this, you had no right to be there!"

"...I couldn't just leave this to some cops, I had to be there for Nick. I..."

Russell interrupted him. "I can already see Mrs. Douglas' lawyer claiming you and Nick wanted to get back at her."

"Nobody's gonna believe that."

"Don't be too sure about that. It's starting to make sense to me."

"Russell, you can't possibly be serious! You think Nick and I would be able to do something like that?"

"I think we're all a bit upset at the moment..." Brass tried to cool them down a bit. "We're not helping matters if we start attacking each other. We all know Nick would never do anything like that. And Greg wouldn't, either, Russell. You know that. And neither would my guys, Spencer's innocent as well."

"Russell, I didn't mean to hurt the case or Nick. I just couldn't sit around doing nothing knowing that this woman was about to hurt him... I couldn't have known that this would happen."

"...Well, that's what rules are for, Greg. They can protect you from things like that." Russell was still angry with Greg but knew he didn't do anything wrong, except for not obeying his orders.

"Russell, I heard them talk about Nick. They attacked me and Spencer. They planned this."

"The DA believes them. At least enough to look into this."

Greg rubbed his eyes. "What can I do?"

"The DA's gonna ask you some questions. Answer truthfully. There's nothing else you can do at the moment."

* * *

"Is it true that he felt responsible for Randall Worthington attacking you?" the DA asked Greg while they were sitting in the DA's office. Brass and Russell were there, too.

"...Where did you get that from?" Greg asked surprised. Right before Nick got missing, the last conversation him and Greg had was about Nick's guilt.

"Just answer the question, please."

"He did mention it, but..."

"When?" the DA asked, interrupting Greg.

"Two days ago, but..."

Again, Greg was interrupted. "You mean the day he got missing?"

"Yeah. The day he was found beat up and drugged up in Mrs. Douglas' lake house," he added with a sarcastic tone.

"Please just answer my questions."

"...But..." He looked rather helpless to Brass and Russell. "You wouldn't even let me finish my sentences. It's important to note that..."

Once again, he got interrupted. "Alright now, listen. There's no case. Everyone knows about Mrs. Douglas' mental state and the evidence you found against her in the kidnapping case. Judge Hamill, Randall Wortington's uncle, however, wants this case in court. He asked the DA's office for this favor. We agreed to look into it because he's a very well respected judge, but other than that, I'm on your side." Greg, Russell and Brass all looked surprised but relieved. But they were a little too quick with that positive reaction. The DA went on, "However... If we don't do something to help his nephew he assured me that Mrs. Douglas would keep pursuing the sexual harassment suit."

"It doesn't matter, Nick's innocent, he..." Greg got interrupted by Russell.

"What does he want?"

"He wants us to drop all of the drug charges, but will confess to battery. Prison's off the table."

After thinking about it for a second, Russell nodded.

"...Did you just agree to that?" Greg asked shocked.

"Whatever will help Nick will be done, Greg."

"That's what, up to 20 years in prison this guy will never have to face? I want to help Nick as much as you do, but he didn't do anything wrong, Mrs. Douglas has absolutely no evidence to back up any of her stories!"

"No prison, that's fine with us. Tell that to judge Hamill and his nephew." Russell had a bitter look on his face as he said that. He hated this as much as Greg did, but knew it was the only way to make sure Nick would be alright.

* * *

On their way out, Greg made sure to walk fast enough for Russell and Brass to have a hard time keeping up. "Wait for us, will you? We have to talk about this!" Russell yelled after him.

"I don't have anymore to say to this, Russell!"

Russell caught up with him. "Well I do!" He grabbed Greg's arm. "I get that you're angry. I am, too. It sucks that we had to negotiate with this piece of crap to get Nick out of this sexual harassment suit. It also sucks that he'll probably get off with a fine. But Nick's not going to have to go to court. We just lifted this weight off his shoulders in a few seconds, that should count for something, right?"

Greg shoved Russell away without saying a word and walked out of the building.

* * *

For the next two days, the mood at the lab was quite unusual and weird. Everyone could feel the tension between Greg and Russell and they all had a hunch what it was about, but neither one of them had the guts to ask them about it. And no one knew enough to be able to fix things between them. Greg knew how to fix it, though, and was finally ready to do so. He knocked at Russell's door before he walked in. "Can we talk?"

"Sure." Russell offered him a seat, but he refused to.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I was out of line the other day. You said we needed to trust you with your decisions and that's what I'll do." He sighed with a faint smile.

"Thank you. I didn't want to make you feel betrayed, I was just trying to look out for Nick."

"I know... It's ju..." Greg stopped himself. "So... are we good?"

Russell nodded. "What did you want to say?"

"Nothing, it's just... I feel like there's no justice, you know? Randall Worthington's gonna get away with this. Scot-free, with a slap on the wrist, while... while I have to live with the consequences of his deeds." Greg sat down on the seat Russell had offered him before. "And now Nick will have to, as well."

Russell put his glasses down. "Randall Worthington going to prison wouldn't help you deal with this any better, would it? And we spared Nick at least one consequence to live with."

"I know. And I'm glad we did. It's just..." Again, he sighed. "I hate to admit it, but I've gotten vengeful. I thought I was over it since Neil Novak is in a coma, but I feel these feelings again. I want Worthington to pay for what he did. And these feelings are strong enough for me to consider letting my best friend go through exhausting court hearings... I feel horrible about this, but I just can't change it."

"You need to cut yourself some slack," Russell replied in a calm voice. "Nobody's expecting you to feel a certain way about these things. We all feel vengeful sometimes, it's human."

"I do it all the time! Remember the suspect a few weeks ago? We thought he murdered his mother and all I could think was that he deserved to rot in jail for it. It turned out he was innocent."

"So? We're all wrong sometimes. It's not like you'd ever act on these thoughts, right? You'd never go on a killing spree, killing everyone you think would deserve it."

Greg chuckled a bit. "Of course not. But I didn't use to think about revenge like that. I believe in second chances, at least I used to. But now..." Greg shook his head in desperation. "I don't want to feel like that. It makes me miserable."

Russell took a moment to look into some paperwork on the desk. "You know, Nick took the next two weeks off. I don't know if he's up for company or if he'd rather be alone right now, but you could take some time off, too, and spend some of that time with him."

"I don't know, Russell..."

"Or go and see your family. I just don't think you should be here for the next few days. Get your mind off of all these things, see if it helps."


	13. Chapter 13

**Next chapter! :)  
**

* * *

The two weeks had passed and both Nick and Greg were back to work. Sara had already gotten them up to speed. The murderer of Mrs. Douglas' husband had finally been found. The team was suspecting Mrs. Douglas' involvement in his murder, but this suspicion proved to be wrong. Instead, one of his business partners hired someone to kill him over a disagreement over some of the business choices Mr. Douglas had made in the past, causing the business to lose millions. Randall Worthington was sentenced to pay a fine for battery and was released from jail. And Mrs. Douglas, the reason the two were needing time off in the first place, was back home. With her good connections, the loss of her husband and a medical report she got by paying off the doctor, claiming she took some medicine that made her act out like that, it was easy for her to get off without having to spend one single day in prison. Even the tox results were forged.

"How does it feel to be back?" Greg asked Nick as both sat down in the break room.

"Well you know, it's moments like these when you know that this is where you belong. I actually missed going to work." Nick smiled. "How about you?"

"...Same," Greg said after hesitating for a second. He did miss the lab sometimes, but it also felt good to be carefree for a few days.

"It also felt good to be away from the criminals for a while, huh?" Nick didn't mind having to deal with criminals all the time, but he had noticed that Greg started to. He wanted him to know it was perfectly fine to feel that way, even though Nick himself didn't.

"I didn't miss them, if that's what you're asking." Greg chuckled.

"Hey guys." Russell walked in with a smile. "Sara told me you were back. How have you been?" The two CSIs started to tell a few fun stories that happened in the last two weeks until Nick had to go to a crime scene. Russell and Greg remained in the break room for a little while without him. "So..." the supervisor said, "Did it help?"

Greg nodded thoughtful with a rather sad look on his face. "A bit, I guess. Being told that Mrs. Douglas would not go to prison, either, was rough, though, I have to admit."

"I got angry over this, as well. That's why I had to buy Charlotte a new mug." He pulled a fancy coffee mug out of a bag.

"...You caused that stain?" Greg pointed at the wall behind him. A big coffee stain was on it.

Russell nodded with a smirk. "See? Happens to everybody. The criminal insanity defense is total BS and I'll fight it. Until then somebody'll have to repaint that wall." He got off his seat and patted Greg on the back. "Good to have you guys back."

* * *

Another two weeks later, the stain Russell caused in the break room had been painted over. The CSIs tried to go on with their lives, but the juridical aspect of the case made it hard for them. They had to keep talking to the DA and Mrs. Douglas' lawyer. Still, they tried to forget about this case as good as they could. When they walked out of the police station that day, Mrs. Douglas was the last thing on their minds.

"Wanna grab a bite to eat after shift?" Nick asked as they walked down the stairs in front of the department.

Greg patted himself down. "I forgot my wallet at home. How about I fix us something?"

"That depends. Will it be burnt like the last time?" Nick teased as he reached the last step. He glanced around the area and noticed Mrs. Douglas sitting inside a car, staring at him. He stopped, but Greg walked a few steps ahead.

"...Are you coming?" he asked Nick as he stopped, too.

"Don't panic, alright? I think Mrs. Douglas is watching us."

Greg's smile quickly turned into a frown. "...Where is she?"

Without answering that question, Nick walked towards the car.

"Nick, wait!" Greg stopped him. "She's supposed to stay away from you, and you shouldn't go near her, either. Let's get back inside, get a cop and let him tell her off."

"What, you think I'm scared of her? Without a big, strong guy stupid enough to help her, she has no chance against me."

"That's not what I meant. Don't be stupid. Stay out of her life so she can stay out of yours."

Nick rolled his eyes a bit. "You know, you're probably right. Letting someone else take care of this is probably a good idea."

Greg smiled. "Alright, let's go back inside and..."

Nick interrupted him. "Oh you go ahead. I'll stay here and make sure she won't bolt."

Greg gave Nick a look to make him know he wouldn't fall for that. He was sure Nick would use the opportunity to go over there and deal with this himself. "Yeah, right."

"...I'll stay here, I promise."

"I know when I can trust you and when I'd rather not, Nick."

He rolled his eyes. "We'll either both stay here or you're going in. I'm staying, either way."

"...You can be such a... I'll go! Don't you move!" Greg climbed the stairs back up and walked into the police station. When he came back just a few minutes later, both Mrs. Douglas and Nick were nowhere to be seen.

"Where are they?" the police officer asked.

Greg looked around. He started to panic. "...I-I don't know. Her car was over there!" He pointed to the spot where her car was parked. "They were here two minutes ago!" He started running around in panic, trying to find his friend. "Nick?!" he yelled for him.

The officer watched Greg, but didn't know how to calm him down. He felt useless at the moment.

"Greg!" Nick said, walking up on him and the officer from behind the building. "It's okay, I'm here."

"...Where the hell have you been?!"

"Relax. She drove off after you went inside."

Greg waited for Nick to go on, but he didn't. "...So? Where did you go?"

"Just at the back of the station, blowing off some steam..."

Greg looked Nick in the eyes. He knew his friend was lying. He decided to ask him about it later, though, when they were alone.

* * *

Nick and Greg were waiting for Russell inside his office. "So... you were blowing off steam after Mrs. Douglas left?"

Nick raised an eyebrow as he nodded.

"How?"

"What?"

"Well did you punch a wall or something?"

"...What's it to you?"

Greg rolled his eyes over Nick's suspicion. "I'm just trying to understand what happened."

"I already told you."

"Well then tell me again."

"Is there a particular reason you're nagging? It's been an exhausting day, I just wanna tell Russell what happened and head home." Nick was obviously getting annoyed by Greg asking questions.

"I'm not nagging, Nick. I'm just trying to figure out what you were doing after Mrs. Douglas left. What did you two talk about?"

"I didn't talk to her." Nick shook his head.

"Yeah right. How stupid do you think I am?"

Nick got off his seat as he looked at his watch. "You know what, you fill in Russell. If he has any more questions, tell him to call me." He walked out of the room.


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey guys!**

**Here's the next chapter! The story's going to be a bit longer then I actually intended, but I think it's worth it! Enjoy!**

* * *

The next day, Greg was doing some research on the lab's computer. He had received a few phone calls from an unknown number and had his suspicions. He sat there for five minutes when Nick walked in. "Hey buddy. What are you doing there?"

Nick obviously decided to act like nothing happened between the two yesterday and Greg thought it would be best to play along. "Did you get phone calls from an unknown number yesterday?"

"No. Did you try to reach me?"

Greg gave him a look. "Why should I call you from an unknown number?"

"I don't know, I'm sure you'd have your reasons. What's this about?"

"This number called me four times yesterday." He showed Nick the number on the screen. "They hung up every time I answered."

"So someone's playing a phone prank on you. What made you think they called me, too?"

"I'm thinking this is Mrs. Douglas' number."

"...What?!" Nick pushed the chair Greg was sitting on to the side and sat down in front of the computer himself.

"Relax, it's not the one we have in her file. But that doesn't mean it couldn't have been her, right?"

"...I guess. But why would she call you and hang up?"

Greg shrugged. "Maybe she doesn't have the courage to talk."

"But why would she call you?"

"I don't know, but she was the first person that came to mind, you know? The number is a prepaid cell phone, there's no way to find out who it belongs to."

Nick let himself get caught up in Greg's theory for a moment, but soon realized it wasn't a good idea to even think about this. "You know what? No. This wasn't Mrs. Douglas. Somebody else was dialing your number, probably some teens having fun with you. Let it go."

Greg rolled his eyes. Nick was acting like he was obsessing over this. He did, but he didn't realize that. "I just thought it was weird that..." His cell phone's ringtone interrupted him. "Again this number!"

"Gimme that." Nick grabbed the phone and answered it. "Mrs. Douglas? Is that you? ...Hung up again." When he received a look by Greg, he went on. "That doesn't mean it's her. Just forget about it, alright? Block the number if that's what you need to take your mind off of it."

"Would you stop acting like I'm a paranoid freak? It's really not that far-fetched that she's trying to contact us after she observed us."

"She didn't observe us. She was just watching us from her car..."

"You're not defending her, are you?" They got in an argument about whether or not Nick was defending her, if and what he was talking with her yesterday and other things when Russell walked in.

"What's going on, guys?" he asked confused.

The guys looked at each other in anger. "Tell him, Nick. Tell him what you were talking about with Mrs. Douglas yesterday!"

"For the last time, it's none of your business!" Nick yelled.

All the time he denied talking to her. Greg looked at him all surprised. "...It's not? You're sure about that?"

Nick rolled his eyes, knowing Greg was right. "Russell, try your luck at calming him down, I don't have the patience today." Nick walked out.

"Hey, where the hell do you think you're going?!" Greg yelled after him.

"...Is there **any **way to calm you down?" Russell asked with a smirk on his face.

The young CSI sighed. "Why is he being such a jerk? He's acting like this doesn't concern me at all."

Russell sat down next to him. "Does it really matter what he was talking about with that woman?"

He shook his head. "Probably not. But I don't want him to act like he has to go through this alone."

"...So you're supporting him by yelling at him?" Russell couldn't help but laugh.

"I didn't mean to yell at him. He..." Greg stopped after he noticed something Russell said a moment ago. "Wait. So he did talk to her?"

Russell patted Greg's shoulder as he got off his seat. "Give it a rest."

* * *

Greg followed Russell out of the lab. "Wait! You know what they talked about?!"

"I do." Russell walked down the lab's corridor, with Greg tagging along.

"...So? What did they talk about?"

"Is this your way of... being there for Nick?"

Greg rolled his eyes. He got caught. Trying to help Nick go through this was one reason he wanted to know what he talked about with Mrs. Douglas, but not the only one. "Come on."

"I don't think you have to know."

"...What?! Russell! Why is no one ever telling me anything?"

"Could you stop acting like a kindergarten kid? I've told you a hundred times, there's no need in questioning my decisions!" Russell walked into his office and shut the door, leaving Greg standing outside with a confused and angry look.

* * *

An unknown number had called Greg another five times today and he was starting to lose his mind over this. He was sure it was Mrs. Douglas but could do nothing about it. He couldn't even prove it was her, which got him pretty frustrated. He walked up to Nick, who was sitting in the break room, having a cup of coffee, and handed him the cell phone. "Here! I can't take this any longer!"

"...What are you talking about?" Nick grabbed the phone and took a look at it.

"She keeps calling!"

"Who?"

"...Martha Stewart, asking to clean my apartment. Who the hell do you think is calling?! Mrs. Douglas!"

"Alright, calm down, you're not making any sense. Why do you want me to take your phone? Just block the number like I told you."

"I already did, now a new number keeps calling. Don't tell me you still think it's just a bunch of teenagers pranking me."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "That is odd."

"Thank you for stating the obvious! Will somebody finally tell me what's going on?"

Nick sighed annoyed. "Take a seat, I'll fill you in..." He told Greg everything about what went down the other day. Nick approached Mrs. Douglas right after Greg walked into the police station. He wanted to tell her to leave them alone and that she would get in trouble if she'd come near them again. But he didn't get the chance. Instead, she said some threatening stuff towards Nick, but especially towards Greg. "...That's why we didn't want to tell you. We didn't want to upset you or scare you."

"...What exactly did she say?"

"Doesn't matter. She won't get the chance to get near us. There's no need to worry, we..."

Greg interrupted him. "You don't have to patronize me, you should've told me earlier. I feel stupid about our argument now."

"Well you should," Nick said jokingly. "It's alright, I just can't help it. I always feel like I have to protect you."

"Yeah well I appreciate it, but I'd rather be treated like an adult." After a short pause, he went on. "What are we gonna do about her now?"

"There's not much we can do right now. We told the DA and he said he'd take care of it." Nick had a thoughtful look on his face. Despite telling Greg not to, he did worry about this himself.

"Well, and now? I mean, are we safe? Does she know where we live or..."

"Greg, stop it. That's why I didn't want you to know. I can see you thinking up scenarios about this, just stop it. She won't get a chance to hurt us, you hear me? We won't let her."


	15. Chapter 15

**Wanna find out if Greg's going insane? And how will he react to facing Mrs. Douglas? Read on! :)**

* * *

Mrs. Douglas didn't get another chance to hurt the two again physically, but she was pretty good at messing with Greg's head at them moment. His phone kept ringing every few hours and it was always a different unknown number. Since he needed his phone for work, turning it off was not an option. His phone made some noise again while he was at a crime scene with Sara, but this time not because he received a phone call, but an e-mail. "Every time that damn phone goes off, I get chills running down my spine..." he said with a self-pitying laugh. "...Just an e-mail." He smiled relieved, but the smile only lasted a second.

"What is it?" Sara asked, bending down to pick some evidence up from the floor.

"This e-mail... I... I think I'm starting to lose my mind." He held the phone in front of Sara to make her read it.

" 'Two eyes are better than one.' ? What does that mean? Who sent this?"

"My guess is it's from Mrs. Douglas."

"What makes you think that?"

"Oh come on, it's obviously a bad joke on my expense. The eye patch?" Greg had to wear the eye patch for six weeks because of a corneal rupture caused by the pistol-whip he received from Travis, Mrs. Douglas' partner in crime. He had another two weeks to go.

Sara had a worrisome look on her face. "Maybe you should listen to Russell and Nick for once and try not to think about her."

"How can I not think about her when she's harassing me?"

"You don't even know it's her! Come here." Sara walked up to him and took his cell phone out of his hands. "I'm taking your phone for the next few hours. I'll let you know if you have any important calls or messages. Now forget about her and get back to work!"

* * *

Sara taking away Greg's phone did help him get his mind off of Mrs. Douglas for a while. In their lunch break, Greg decided to get him and Sara some food. Walking out of the store he bought some sandwiches at, he bumped into Mrs. Douglas. "Sor..." he wanted to apologize until he noticed who he just bumped into. "...You."

"Oh Greg, I apologize. Are you alright?" she said, acting as if nothing ever happened between them.

They were standing in front of the store just around the corner of the lab and the police station. "What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here," he said a bit nervous.

"Oh, I was just in the neighborhood and wanted to buy a few things in there..." She smiled at him.

"...You shouldn't be in the neighborhood, we have a restraining order against you. Don't come near Nick or me again." He tried to walk past her, but she stood in the way.

"Is your eye okay? My lawyer wasn't able to tell me whether or not you'll be blind on this eye or not..."

As she reached up to touch Greg's face, he grabbed her wrist quite forcefully. "Don't you even dare touching me. We'll do everything we can to uncover your little charade. And when we do, you'll go to prison, where you belong... You won't be able to touch anyone of us from in there." She stared at him quite surprised for a moment while he still had his hand around her wrist. She didn't expect him to be this confrontational, she thought she'd knew him. When her surprised look turned into a rather hurtful and scared one, Greg let go of her wrist. "I don't want to see you anywhere near us again... You got that?" He walked away from her. Feeling her eyes following him as he left, he patted himself down to get his cell phone. Only now he remembered he handed it over to Sara a few hours ago.

"Greg!" Mrs. Douglas yelled after him, but he didn't turn around. He kept on walking. "You'll regret this, Greg! You hear me?"

* * *

Greg walked into the break room visibly distraught.

"Is everything alright?" Sara asked as Greg handed her her sandwich.

Greg nodded. "Everything's fine." He sat down and started eating, while Sara kept looking at him rather worried.

"...You're sure?"

Greg gave her a look, communicating he didn't want to talk about it, but also that he wasn't okay.

"...Well, this might not be the best time to tell you, but..." Sara put out Greg's phone. "Seven missed calls in the last hour."

"...When was the last one?"

"While you were out. Actually, Five of the seven calls were in that time frame." Sara shrugged.

"...Dammit!" Greg threw his sandwich on the table, grabbed his phone and hurried out.

* * *

Greg stormed into Russell's office. Nick was there, too. "Good, you're both here." He put his cell phone on Russell's desk. "It's her. I know it is!"

"...We're kind of in the middle of something, Greg." Nick raised his eyebrows.

"I just saw her!" Greg exclaimed.

"What?! Where?"

"At the store around the corner. She threatened me, and shortly after I had five missed calls on my phone... All from the unknown number!"

Russell put his glasses down. "You say she threatened you? What did she say?" He had a very uneasy look on his face.

Greg filled them in on the altercation he had with Mrs. Douglas, but left out the part where he grabbed her hand. He was quite ashamed he lost his cool like that.

"Why didn't you call us?"

"Sara had my phone, I was going crazy over the calls and..." Greg sighed. "Anyway, we got to do something."

* * *

Nick and Greg had to meet with Mrs. Douglas and her lawyer. Russell went with them, as well as the DA. When the CSIs walked in, Mrs. Douglas was looking all scared and helpless, as if she was the victim. The DA gave Nick and Greg a look of reproach, asking them to sit down in a meeting room. "Thank you all for coming. A lot of different stories have been brought to my attention in the last few days and I think we need to clear it all up." They were all sitting around a long, black table.

"How about we start with that guy injuring Cheryl?!" Tyler Scott, a young man Mrs. Douglas asked to accompany her for moral support, pointed at Greg.

"...What the hell are you talking about?" Greg asked angrily.

Mrs. Douglas showed everybody her wrist. A dark, nasty bruise was shown. Her hand was shaking. "He came at me like a wild animal... I almost couldn't push him away..." she whimpered.

"What?! That wasn't me!"

Russell leaned in to Greg and whispered. "Any chance you did this yesterday, when you ran into her?"

"...Okay, I forgot to tell you that I... kind of grabbed her wrist. She wanted to touch my face and..." Greg's whisper got interrupted by Russell, clearing his throat.

"Do you have any evidence besides your made-up memory to prove Greg did this, Mrs. Douglas?" Russell asked with a fake smile on his face.

"Go ahead, take samples or something like that. It was him, Tyler is my witness." Mrs. Douglas tried to defend herself.

"Mrs. Douglas..." the DA chimed in. "You're not supposed to go anywhere near the two. How could this happen?"

"We bumped into each other, it was a coincidence!"

"No, it wasn't! Why would she shop around the corner of the lab when she knows she's not supposed to go near us? She followed me there!"

"Mr. Sanders, what happened?"

Greg sighed before he went on to tell the true story about what happened. He didn't leave anything out this time, causing Nick to look quite surprised at his friend.


	16. Chapter 16

**Only a couple more chapters! I hope you're still enjoying the story!**

**Now let's see how things are progressing... ;)**

* * *

Greg walked a few steps ahead of Russell and Nick when they left the briefing room. The shame he felt was just too much, he didn't want Russell and Nick to see it.

"So Greg, you actually attacked her?" Nick asked a bit careful, but with amusement in his voice.

Greg knew there was no way around this talk, so he slowed down to let them keep up with him. "I snapped, alright? It won't happen again and I feel bad... It almost cost us in there. But I didn't cause the bruise!"

It actually helped. The DA didn't believe it was Greg who gave Mrs. Douglas the bruises – he didn't, she made Tyler do it to make it all more dramatic – but instead was as shocked about Greg's behavior as he was himself, which lead him to get an extension on the restraining order. Mrs. Douglas would have to stay a longer distance away from the guys from now on.

"Well honestly, I'm surprised you didn't slap her. I probably would've." Nick patted him on the back.

"What?" Greg stopped. "Nick, despite of all what she did to us, we shouldn't take our anger out on her."

"Would it be better to take it out on someone who isn't responsible for our anger? Don't beat yourself up for what you did, it was about time someone showed her he wouldn't take her shit anymore."

Greg started walking again to keep up with his colleagues. "Russell, you're quiet since we walked out of there. You're disappointed in me, right?"

Russell gave Greg a smile. "Do you want me to? You guys had to endure a lot and it's all because of this woman. I'm not surprised you snapped. Well, actually... I'm on Nick's side. I'm surprised you didn't snap sooner. Or harder."

Greg shook his head. He knew they were right, but for some reason he felt like he needed to feel bad about this. "It was stupid. I should've ignored her, that's what I should've done!"

Russell and Nick rolled their eyes. They were a bit proud of Greg for trying to be mature, but they also didn't think Mrs. Douglas deserved that. "The DA realized how bad you guys were traumatized by that woman, he extended the restraining order, it served a good purpose, that's the important part."

* * *

Three days later, Henry was walking around the lab rather lost. He was hungover and it showed. He looked horribly tired and confused.

"Hey man, where are you? I was waiting in your lab for almost ten minutes and you didn't show up," Nick said as he was walking up to the lab rat.

"Sorry. I was... Oh yeah right! I wanted to get coffee!" He walked towards the break room.

"This is your third coffee break! I need my results, man!"

"You'll get them, don't worry... Should I survive this day, that is."

"What happened to you?" Nick asked laughing as he followed Henry inside the break room. "Wild night?"

Henry walked towards the coffee machine, but hit his leg at the chair Greg was sitting in on his way there. "Dammit!"

"Watch your step," Greg said teasing.

"Could you all stop talking, please? My head's killing me..."

"Why did you drink that much when you knew you had to come to work the following day?" Nick asked grinning.

"No, Nick, that's not the important question," Greg chimed in. "The important question is... Why are you texting me weird things when you're drunk, Henry? Is there anything you want to tell me but are afraid I might reject you?"

"...What kind of weird things?" Henry had a rather scared look on his face.

"Relax." Greg giggled. "You said you missed me and stuff like that... When I didn't reply, you seemed to be getting angry."

"I did? I'm sorry... I don't even remember texting you!" He patted himself down. "...Where's my phone?" Nick sat down next to Greg while Henry was getting hysterical. "I need my phone! I... I couldn't have... damn!"

"Calm down, maybe you forgot it at home," Nick suggested.

"No, I had it with me last night and I didn't take it out when I came home today..."

Greg raised an eyebrow as he grinned. "Where did you spend the night, tiger?"

"...What is this, an interrogation?! Mind your own business!"

"I would, but you don't have my results ready." Nick got off his seat and got himself a cup of coffee.

"Oh that's bad..." Henry sat down on the seat Nick just got off of and put his head on the table. "Very bad..."

"What is? You lost your phone, that sucks, but it's not the end of the world." Greg tried to cheer him up. They enjoyed making fun of their colleague when he was just hangover, but he was feeling down now.

"...Wallet's gone, too."

"...Okay, I have to ask. Did a girl flirt with you to rob you?"

"No! Stop saying that!" Henry exclaimed. "I'm sure it's a coincidence... I'll just call Gillian and ask her about it..." He reached down in his pocket, only to remind himself again that his phone was gone. "Dammit!"

The guys couldn't help but laugh. "I hope she was worth it."

"You know, it was weird... It never happened to me before that a girl approached me at a bar. I should've known she was up to something."

Hodges walked in, slamming some files on the table. "Russell wants you to have these."

"What's up with you?" Greg asked, rather shocked at how pissed Hodges looked.

"I'm not his mailman, you know. I'm a busy man, I have better things to do than to play messenger for Russell!" He walked over the coffee machine to fix himself a cup.

"Not too busy to get coffee, huh?" Nick said smirking.

While Nick and Hodges started bickering, Henry grabbed the files on the table. "What the hell?!" he yelled.

"...What?" Greg asked startled, giving him a confused look.

Henry looked Greg up and down. "...Nothing. Uhm... Hodges, you got a minute?"

* * *

They walked outside of the break room. Henry had the files clenched in his hand. "Hodges... Who is she?"

"Who? Mrs. Douglas?" Hodges looked at the picture Henry was holding up. "Nick's latest stalker. Why? You've never seen her before?"

"No! Nobody tells me anything! Gosh! It's like I'm not even part of the team, I..." he started rambling.

"...Any particular reason you're asking?"

When Henry wanted to start talking, Nick walked up to them. "Henry, I need my results. I'll wait in the lab..."

Henry was silent until Nick was out of sight. "This woman... It's Gillian!"

"No, her name's Cheryl." Hodges was getting confused and annoyed. "Maybe you should get home until you're sober."

"I am! Listen to me! That's Gilian, the woman I've been with yesterday!"

"...No way!"

"Yeah! And I'm pretty sure she stole my wallet and my cell phone and was texting Greg yesterday with it!"

Henry didn't see Greg walking up to him when he said that. "...What did you just say?"

Henry sighed desperate. "Nothing..."

"You had sex with Mrs. Douglas?!"

As Greg was taking more steps closer to Henry, the lab rat backed up. "I-I didn't know!"

"...And you let her steal your cell phone?" Greg thought about it for a second. "The messages make sense now..."

"Greg, I'm so sorry! Please don't tell Nick!"

"I'll have to tell him! And Russell! ...And the DA. And everyone else who wants to know!"

"Calm down, okay? It's not like I wanted to sleep with Nick's stalker! I didn't know who she was!"

"Everybody in this frickin' lab knows what she looks like, but you don't?!" Greg wasn't able to calm down right now. He was furious.

"Okay, yelling at him won't help matters now, Sanders. Take a deep breath and calm down." Hodges tried to intervene, but it didn't help much. Greg kept on yelling. All the frustration and anger building up for weeks were coming out now, hitting poor Henry. When the two lab rats realized they wouldn't be able to calm Greg down, they decided to wait for him to calm down eventually. They both stood there and listened to his rant.

Russell's attention was brought on the three when he walked by. "Whoa, what is going on here?"

"Henry sle... He... Gosh, I'm so angry, I can't even say it! You tell him!" Greg turned around and walked a few steps.

"Maybe we should talk inside your office..." Henry led Russell away from the scene and into the office.


	17. Chapter 17

**Hope you're having a great Sunday! Maybe this will make it even better!**

* * *

Greg was still angry, but wanted to be there when they told Nick. They decided to tell him in the break room, figuring he would take it better in a more comfortable room than the boss' office. Greg stood next to the door, crossing his arms nervously, trying not to show how he felt right now. Nick was sitting at the table next to Henry, looking at Russell who was standing in front of them, breaking it to him right now. When Russell was done, Nick briefly looked at Henry, then turned around to Greg. "Are you okay?"

"...Yeah," Greg said lying, a bit confused. He expected a more emotional reaction, like the one he himself had when he heard about it.

"So... Any thoughts about what she might be planning?" Nick asked calmly. He didn't just act that way, he actually was calm.

"...Is that it?" Greg asked surprised.

"Huh?"

"That's your reaction? This lunatic is spying on our friends, following them into bars and... And you don't have anything to say about that?"

"Like what? We knew before that she's a crazy stalker."

"Yeah but..." Greg had no idea what exactly he expected him to be like at the moment, but Nick being as calm as he was at the moment felt wrong.

"You think you're angry, right?"

"...I know I am, Nick." Greg gave him a look.

"Maybe a little, but that's not all you're feeling. You're scared and you feel helpless because this woman is still out there. You know that if she wanted to, she could hurt us a lot. Anytime she wants to." Greg didn't answer to that, he felt a bit ashamed because Nick was right. "But this doesn't help us at the moment. We need to find a way to make sure she goes to prison and stays there for as long as possible. We need to stay focused." Nick turned away from Greg to look at Russell. "Any idea how we could manage that?"

* * *

In the next few hours, Greg apologized to Henry and Hodges for letting his anger out on them and what Nick said helped him deal with his emotions better. Him and the other CSIs kept thinking about how to deal with Mrs. Douglas and came up with a few ideas. Greg had a quite unconventional idea he didn't share with his colleagues. He sat inside his car, parked in front of Mrs. Douglas' house for two hours now, thinking, staring at the house. It would take him another half hour until he decided to drive back home. Five minutes after he arrived at his apartment, there was a knock on the door. The psychological terror Mrs. Douglas was inflicting on him made him startle when he heard the knock. He opened the door when he saw it was Nick knocking. "Hey. What are you doing here?"

"Where's your gun?" Nick asked.

"What...?" Greg had an insecure smile on his face.

"Where is it? I saw you take it with you tonight. You usually keep it in your locker."

"You should go home, Nick. It's late." Greg meant to close the door, but Nick slammed it open and walked in. "Hey, are you crazy?!"

Nick closed the door behind him. "I can't believe how stupid you are sometimes! You take your gun... Not to mention your registered gun you use at work... and drive over to Mrs. Douglas'?!"

"...You followed me?"

"Oh yeah, because **that's** what we should be focusing on right now!"

Greg walked into the kitchen to get Nick something to drink. "Sit down and shut up, let me explain!" He handed his friend the glass. "Yes, I took the gun with me tonight and drove over to Mrs. Douglas, but it's not what it looks like. I didn't mean to do anything. I don't know what I was doing there... I just thought I might need protection."

"I really hope you're telling the truth because... Believe me, it's not like I didn't think about it at least once... But it wouldn't solve any problems, it would only cause more."

Greg had a sad, desperate look on his face. "At least it would help me sleep at night again. Ever since the phone calls started..." He shook his head. "I was fine for a while, but now... I don't know what to do about it. I block the number, she calls with a new one... And I can't turn it off when I'm on call... or anytime else, there could always be an emergency at work."

Nick sighed. He pointed at Greg's bedroom. "Go in there and pack your bags. You'll stay at my place for the next few days."

He shook his head. "There's no need to, Nick. But thanks."

"Yes there is. We'll tell Russell to call me if he needs to contact you. That way you can turn off your phone until you get a new number, alright?"

* * *

Greg stayed at Nick's for three days now and both men were on edge. Greg had his phone off as much as he could, but every now and then, when it was turned on, he received the anonymous phone calls again. The guys were stressed out and had to get used to the new circumstances – Greg being Nick's new roommate for a while – was a little hard to handle in that stressful time and they got into arguments quite often. Usually about unimportant stuff. Right now it was about the missing beer in the fridge. "I just wanted to come home after a long shift, sit in front of the TV and have a cold beer!" Nick yelled while sitting down on the couch.

"I didn't drink it! I don't know where your precious beer went!" Greg yelled back.

"That's typical! You're never taking any responsibility for your mistakes!"

"Excuse me? Where did you get that from?"

They went on to yell at each other for a few minutes until Nick found the beer. It was sitting on the kitchen sideboard because he himself took it out of the fridge this morning and forgot to get it back in. Greg didn't say anything, but his look said enough for Nick. "Don't give me that look, okay?"

"What look?"

"Like you don't know!"

"Who's the one not able to take responsibility for his mistakes now?" They went on to fight about this and other things for another ten minutes.

* * *

The next day, when they were trying to forget the fight last night ever happened, they were on their way to the lab, but Greg needed to stop at home first to get some of his stuff. He was the one driving and Nick was sitting in the passenger seat. They talked about random stuff when a car was suddenly changing lanes in front of Greg. He needed to brake quite strong in order to avoid crashing into the other car. He hit the horn three times and yelled in anger.

"What the hell, man?" Nick asked with a rather annoyed look on his face.

"What? This jerk almost crashed into me!"

"You could've slowed down and let him change lanes."

"Yeah but I didn't and he should've been the one to slow down instead of almost crashing into me! Idiot!"

It was the fourth day of their sharing a home and that was how long it took Nick to realize how angry and frustrated Greg really had become. "Take it easy, man."

Greg sighed. "I just can't stand these idiots thinking they own the streets!"

"This happens all the time, I've never seen you react to it like that."

"So?" he asked annoyed.

"So... Is this what Mrs. Douglas has made you? An angry guy who beats up other drivers because they cut them off?"

"I'd never beat anyone up, what are you talking about?"

Nick shook his head. "Don't let her get to you like that, Greg. Do something against the anger."

"I'm not angry because of her. This guy was just..."

"No, I don't buy it. Don't try to find excuses, she did this to you."

Greg was annoyed because Nick was right. He decided not to answer and just keep driving. They finally arrived at Greg's apartment and he got out of the car.

Nick hesitated for a moment, but then got out, too. "Wait up, I said I'd help you carry your stuff and that's what I'm gonna do..."

They walked up to the apartment and Greg put his key inside the lock. Trying to turn it to unlock the door, the lock fell out. Greg just stood there with the stupidest look on his face, briefly looking at Nick, saying, "That's weird."

"Oh no, Greg..."

He opened the door, but before he could enter, Nick put his hand on Greg's hand and stopped him to open the door any further. "I don't think you should go in there."

"But..." Greg looked down on the lock. "Who did this?" He was slowly beginning to acknowledge what this meant. Someone broke into his apartment. "I-I don't get it... Who would break into my apartment?"

Nick looked at Greg rather fascinated. He had no doubt that Mrs. Douglas was the one calling him from the unknown phone number, but didn't even think about her when someone broke into his home. "Maybe you should wait in the care while I make some phone calls, alright?"

"No. I got this, let me just..." He tried to walk in, but Nick, again, kept him from doing so.

"Don't! You're gonna mess up the scene. Let me call Russell, he'll take care of it."


	18. Chapter 18

**Poor Greg can't seem to catch a break! Wonder if this will go out well for him... ;)**

* * *

Greg sat on the floor of the hallway in his apartment complex, leaning against a wall while his colleagues were processing the crime scene inside his apartment. Nick wasn't allowed to process anything, but he was inside, talking to Russell. When he went out again, he sat down next to Greg.

"How's it going in there?" Greg asked without looking at Nick.

"Doesn't look like anything valuable is missing. They messed the place up, though."

Greg sighed. "Did they find any trace to work on?"

Nick nodded. "Some fingerprints and... And I'm sure they'll be able to find him."

Greg frowned. "Him?"

Nick patted Greg's back with a weird look on his face. "Or her."

"What is it?"

"Nothing." Nick got up. "How about we get you to work?"

Greg got up, too. "In a minute. I'd like to take a look inside."

Nick hastily shook his head. "I don't think that's a good idea, Greg..."

"I can deal with it. I have to." He turned around to walk in, but Nick grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him back around again. "...You want me to get dizzy?"

"Trust me, alright? You don't want to go in there. Wait for the pictures or better yet... Wait until it's all cleaned up, okay?"

* * *

Nick was able to convince Greg to stay out of his apartment until it was cleaned up, but he had a hard time to keep him from the evidence they found in there. What Greg didn't know was that Nick had talked to everybody working on the case, helping him with this. So when Greg tried to stay updated on the case, he got rejected by some of his co-workers. He wondered, but kept trying. "Hey Russell," he said as he walked into the evidence room where his boss was working on some evidence. "Is that from my apartment?" he asked nosy.

Russell put the evidence back into the box sighing. "Do you need something?"

"...I didn't mean to interrupt you, sorry. I'm just trying to get updated on the case and nobody's able to tell me anything."

"That might be because you're the victim, Greg. They usually don't come into the lab and look over our shoulders while we work, do they?" Annoyance was obvious in his tone. He wasn't annoyed by Greg, he was annoyed he had to keep a secret.

Greg looked a bit offended by Russell's tone. "It's not like I'm a regular victim, I... What the hell is going on?"

Russell grabbed the evidence box and walked out. "I don't know what you mean."

Greg followed behind. "Everyone's being kinda rude to me when I ask about the case. I just want to know if the evidence confirms Mrs. Douglas' involvement."

"It doesn't."

"...What? Then who did this?"

Russell sighed. "Greg, talk to Nick, alright?"

"Nick? Why, he doesn't even work the case."

"Just do it. I can't help you, I'm sorry."

* * *

Greg decided to wait in the locker room for Nick to get back from a crime scene. "Hey Greg," he said as he finally walked in.

"Russell told me to ask you about the case. Which is funny because you don't work on it."

"...What case?" Nick asked, knowing exactly what Greg was talking about.

"Not you, too, please. Everyone seems to be avoiding me or lying to me or yelling at me whenever I try to talk about that goddamn case. I have a right to get filled in on it."

"They yell?" Nick asked with amusement in his voice.

"Hodges did."

"He's just a moody guy, don't interpret too much into anything he does or say." Nick patted Greg's back.

"Nick. Come on, what's going on?"

The CSI sighed. "Can't you stop being so nosy for a moment? You'd make my life a lot easier." He walked out of the locker room and into the break room, signing Greg to follow him. They both sat down at the table and Nick started to give him the news about the case. He wanted to tell him in a few days, when Greg had processed what happened a little and wasn't still in shock, but the younger CSI forced him to tell him now. "I understand Russell already told you that he didn't find any signs of Mrs. Douglas being inside the apartment, right? Well, it's because we're sure it was a guy who broke in. They're already testing the DNA, hopefully he's in the system."

Greg sat there, looking at Nick, trying to understand what he was trying to say to him. "Where did they find the DNA?"

"Your bed," he replied, fighting his urge to look away from Greg.

"What kind of DNA? Did he cut himself or something?"

Nick stared at Greg disbelieving. "Yeah, I doubt that's what happened."

Over the years, Greg developed the ability to be ignorant towards information he didn't want to hear. This was the perfect situation to use his ability, much to Nick's confusion. Greg knew exactly what Nick was trying to tell him, but he simply blocked this knowledge out right now. "Well maybe he already had a wound that caused the blood loss." He smiled.

"It's not blood he... Jesus, Greg. You understand what I'm trying to tell you, right?" Nick gave him a highly confused look. He didn't want to say it out loud, he was disgusted about it, as well.

"Of course." Greg nodded. "It doesn't actually matter how he got the blood there, let's just hope it'll help us find him." Greg hopped off his seat and walked out.

* * *

Greg, Nick, Hodges and Russell were sitting in the break room the next day. "Oh no. Greg, isn't it enough for you to ruin **my** dishes?" Nick said, standing at the sink with a bowl in his hand.

"What are you talking about?"

"You had cereals three days ago and didn't wash the bowl, now the bowl is ruined."

Greg rolled his eyes. "Relax, just soak it now, I'll wash it later."

"Yeah, that's all I ever hear. Later. You..."

Hodges interrupted Nick. "Gosh, you sound like an old married couple. I'm trying to solve this killer sudoku, I need to concentrate."

While Nick and Greg ignored Hodges and kept on arguing, Henry walked in. "Russell, I got the results ready." Russell quickly got off his seat in an attempt to talk to Henry outside, but the lab tech kept on talking. "Our sperm donor is Zachary Perry, a bouncer in a downtown night club."

Russell rolled his eyes and gave Henry a look. "Let's go in my office..."

"Wait," Greg said confused. "Did you start another case? I thought the break-in in my apartment was your only case at the moment."

"Russell, I tried to tell him yesterday, he just wouldn't listen," Nick explained, trying to wash the bowl.

"Tell me what?" Greg was acting like an idiot at the moment, but he genuinely didn't know.

"Oh god people, can't be that hard. Greg, listen to me." Hodges waited for Greg to look at him. "It seems like this Zachary Perry guy jerked off on your bed, alright? That's what everyone kept trying to hide from you, that's why nobody was allowed to talk to you about the case." Hodges looked around the room to look at the others. "There. Done." He concentrated on his sudoku again.

"...What?!" Greg exclaimed. "Who is this guy and why would he... Oh god, that's..."

Henry, Nick and Russell all gave Hodges a look. "Was that really necessary?"

"What? He deserves to know. He's not a child." Hodges was actually trying to be gentle, keeping the fact from Greg that the bed wasn't the only place they found sperm on. It was all over the bedroom walls as well.

When Greg hurried outside the room, Nick and Russell ran after him. On his way out, Nick shoved Hodges.

* * *

"Greg, wait! This is a good thing! We have a name!" Nick smiled, trying to cheer him up.

"Oh yeah, I'm overjoyed over the fact that this guy... Ugh, horrible. I didn't want to know that! Why did you even tell me?!"

Nick gave Greg a look. "You can't be serious."

"Okay..." Russell tried to calm him down. "We're sorry. We tried to keep this from you but now you know. But we shouldn't concentrate on that. Let's find out if there's a connection between him and Mrs. Douglas, okay?"

* * *

"I checked Zachary Perry out, I can't find an apparent connection to Mrs. Douglas. He works at a nightclub that's frequented by young people, I can't see Mrs. Douglas spending her nights there." Sara handed Nick some files. "Maybe he'll talk to you. Good luck."

As she walked away, Nick turned to Greg. "You're sure you want to watch?"

He nodded.

"And you'll be fine? You won't storm into the room and yell at him or something?"

Greg chuckled. "No! Of course not. I just want to watch, is all."

"Alright..." Nick walked into the interrogation room, where Zachary Perry and Brass were waiting for him. "Mr. Perry. You got your pants on, must be our lucky day." He sat down next to Brass. He took a look into the files Brass had put on the table earlier, looked to the mirror Greg was standing behind, then to Perry and back in the files. He sighed. "So... How do you know Mrs. Douglas?"

"I don't." Perry had a defensive body language and kept avoiding eye contact with Brass and Nick.

"Then why were you breaking into my colleague's apartment?"

"I didn't."

"And you didn't steal anything of value, either."

" 'course I didn't. Because I didn't break in there."

Nick laughed a bit. "Sure. That's your defense, huh? Sorry to break it to you, but we have overwhelming evidence to prove you're lying."

"I ain't lying."

Nick was getting a tad annoyed. He showed Perry a picture of Mrs. Douglas. "You've never seen her before?"

"Nope."

"How about this?" He pulled out some pictures of Greg's apartment. When Perry shook his head again, Nick had enough. "We found your DNA in there, man. You carried a picture of his mother in your pocket when we picked you up. You better start talking soon." Quickly after he said that, he looked to the mirror where Greg was standing behind, again. "Was this a friendly turn or did she pay you for this?"

* * *

After the successful interrogation, Nick walked out rather joyful and proud. He was surprised to see Greg gone. "Officer, have you seen Sanders?"

"He left ten minutes ago," the officer explained.

Nick went to find Greg, but he was nowhere in the police station. Figuring he might've walked back to the lab again, he did the same.

* * *

Nick was surprised to see Greg walking up and down in front of the department. "Hey. Are you alright?"

"How'd it go?"

"Mrs. Douglas paid him money to break in..."

Greg sighed. "Why did he take a picture of my mom?" He was close to walking into the interrogation room when he heard that information, something Nick didn't want him to do. That's why he walked out of the building.

"Don't ask." Nick gave him a faint smile. "Doesn't matter, alright? We got him and we got Mrs. Douglas."

"Did he say why she wanted him to break in in the first place?"

"He claims she just wanted him to mess the place up to scare us."

"And you believe that?"

Nick sighed. "We'll know when you notice something missing, I guess. But what would she want to take from you?"

Greg shrugged. "I don't know, I just have a bad feeling about this. But... Maybe I just know too much." He gave Nick a faint smile, trying to make the best out of this horrible situation.


	19. Chapter 19

**Not too long until the final chapter! Are you excited to find out what's going to happen? ;)**

* * *

He had to wear the eye patch for six weeks, but today Greg was finally allowed to take it off. Nick had driven him to the doctor and was now waiting in the waiting room for him to come out. While he was browsing through some magazines, he heard a familiar voice talking to the receptionist. Looking up, he couldn't believe Mrs. Douglas was actually standing there. He thought about approaching her for a moment, but was too angry and knew it wouldn't go well. Instead, he sneaked into the examination room. "Greg!" he whispered. He received confusing looks both by Greg and the doctor.

"We're done in a few minutes, could you please wait outside?" the doctor said.

"Excuse me, doc, I need to talk to Greg for a minute."

"What's wrong?" Greg had the eye patch off, but had to do some tests before he was good to go.

The doctor left with an irritated look on his face.

"Mrs. Douglas is out there."

"What?" Greg said disbelieving, almost mocking. "A lot of rich people go to this doctor, maybe the woman outside just looks like her. There's a lot of women who look like her. Just yesterday I ran into a woman, she..."

Nick interrupted him. "Did they gave you any drugs?" He gave him a look. "I think I know what Mrs. Douglas looks like. It's her. You can take a look if you don't believe me."

Greg didn't get any drugs, but eye drops to dilate his pupils to do some tests. He had a blurred vision because of it. "I can't. I see all blurry, I don't even see you clearly."

"You don't have to see for yourself, just trust me! What are we gonna do now?"

Greg rolled his eyes. He walked into the other examination room the doctor just left in. "Dr. McDermott, there's a woman outside in the waiting room we believe is dangerous..." He briefly explained the problem and asked the doctor to call the police.

* * *

When backup arrived, Mrs. Douglas was nowhere to be seen. The receptionist talked to the officers. "She wanted to get some information of one of our patients... I told her I couldn't tell her anything because it was confidential... Then she claimed she was his mother."

"Did you give her any information?"

"Of course not! I knew something about her was wrong."

Nick and Greg walked out in the waiting room. "Where is she?"

* * *

"I'll call Russell and tell him I come in later today," Nick said, sitting in the car he had parked in front of his home.

"No, you go to work. They need you there. Besides, I'm fine. I'll join you at the lab once these eye drops wear off."

"But what if..."

Greg stopped him. "Don't you even go there. The officers are trying to find her and Brass will let us know when they do. My guess is that your home is the last place she'd hide at, okay?"

Nick sighed. "You're sure? They could go another few hours without me, that way I could drive you to work."

"Once I regain perfect vision I'll be able to drive myself." He patted Nick on the shoulder. "But thanks." He got out of the car and Nick drove off.

Being exhausted over the constant stress he felt, he decided to take a nap and wait for the drops to wear off. Lying down on the couch, he fell asleep within five minutes. He got woken up another five minutes later when he heard a knock on the door. Still not seeing all that much, he got up and looked through the fish eye and could only figure out a silhouette. "Who's this?" No answer. The silhouette was wearing a CSI cap, ensuring him it was Nick. "Did you forget something?" He opened the door and was surprised to see someone a bit shorter than Nick – shorter than what he thought he'd seen in the fish eye. It took him a moment to recognize who was standing there, but the scent he smelled was proof enough. He tried to quickly close the door, but the visitor smashed it open.

"Get back!" Mrs. Douglas yelled with a gun in her hand.

Greg raised his arms and made a few steps back. "Don't..."

"Where's Nick?"

"Out."

"When will he be back?"

Greg shook his head. "I don't know. Soon."

She closed the door. "How about you take a seat. This could take a while."

* * *

Mrs. Douglas was holding Greg hostage for fifteen minutes now. His vision was slowly getting better, but the effects of the eye drops were still impairing him a bit. Still, he kept on thinking of ways of how to take the gun away from her. So far, he came up with nothing. "Do you want me to maybe call him...? So he'll be here sooner..." Greg suggested rather helpless.

"How about you just shut your pretty face and wait with me?" she replied with a weird smile on her face. "I really didn't want this to end this way, you know... You're forcing me to do this."

Greg rolled his eyes. After ten minutes, Mrs. Douglas started walking up and down rather nervously. "...Can I ask you something?"

Mrs. Douglas looked him up and down. "Depends. What is it?"

"Why did you send Zachary Perry to break into my home?"

"Who said I did that?"

"He does. Did he take something you wanted to have?"

She sighed. "You had to butt in on my relationship with Nick and I didn't like that. You know I always liked you but... I love Nick. And nothing's gonna stand between us." She wouldn't want to admit she needed someone to break in so that she would know where Nick lived. Also, Perry brought her the CSI cap she was wearing right now. Nick had forgotten it at Greg's place, it was a lucky coincidence for her.

Greg didn't know how to respond to that, so he changed the subject. "I'm getting thirsty... Can I get some water?"

She didn't plan on caving in to requests like that, but she still kind of liked Greg. She had a twisted mind, after all. "Alright. I'll get you..." She stopped herself, then went on. "Come on, we'll get you some."

Greg got up, but quickly sat down again.

"What's wrong? Get up!"

"I can't... I... I'm feeling a little dizzy..." He tried again but failed once more. "The doctor said this could happen..."

She sighed annoyed. "I'll be just a sec... Don't move." She walked into the kitchen to get some water. When she came back, her hand still wrapped around her gun, Greg pointed one at her himself.

"Drop the gun."

Her surprised look quickly turned into an outraged one. "You lied to me! Where did you get that from?!"

One thing she didn't know about Nick was that he always kept a gun in a side table in the living room. Greg had used the opportunity to get it. "Just drop the gun!"

"No." She kept pointing it at him. "You better do it. A friend of mine will be here in a few minutes and you don't want him to find you threatening me with a gun!"

Greg didn't believe a word she said. "Me and Nick went through hell because of you! Don't think I'm not able to pull the trigger!"

Footsteps approaching the door could be heard. Both were quiet to listen for a moment, then Mrs. Douglas had an evil smirk on her face. "See? He's early."

Greg started shaking. He had no idea what to do, he kept pointing his gun at Mrs. Douglas.

"Greg, can you even see me?" She laughed. She started wandering around the room.

"Stop!"

"I just realized... You can't see whether or not I'm about to pull the trigger, right? You'll never see it coming..."

Greg felt trapped. She was right, he didn't see her hands and had no idea what she was planning to do next. He heard someone putting his hand on the door knob.

"Put the gun down if you want to live, Greg. It's as easy as that! I promise, we won't hurt you..."

He shook his head. "No..."

"It's not like you have much of a choice. Die now or live. What is it going to be?"

Thinking about taking a leap of faith and just shoot at her, he decided to put his gun down, regretting the decision the moment he did it. "Okay... I'm sorry, please don't shoot..."

The door opened.


	20. Chapter 20

**What's hiding behind door number 1?**

**Grand Finale! I hope you enjoyed my story and will read the upcoming one. It's gonna be a bit lighter, I promise! :)  
**

**Big Love,  
**

**pikapikatchu  
**

* * *

"So which one is this? Yours or mine?" Mrs. Douglas' friend, Morgan Duncan, asked as he walked in and saw Greg standing there with his hands up.

Mrs. Douglas giggled. "Yours, silly."

Greg watched the two, scared of what was going to happen. "Mrs. Douglas, please... You love Nick, don't you? You can't just... Kill him..."

She released a frightening laugh. "What makes you think I want to kill him?"

He looked confused. This thought was the obvious one, given the circumstances, he was sure. "Then what are you doing here?"

She rolled his eyes. "Greg, meet my dear friend Morgan. We met... What, three days ago?" She smiled at him.

"Four days, I think," Morgan replied, grinning at Greg.

"I'll hand it to you, Greg. The last time... You were the reason it didn't work. I won't let it happen again. This time, my plan will work."

"...What plan?" he asked, not sure he wanted to know.

"Morgan here will help me get Nick in my car and I'll have my happily ever after with him."

Greg shook his head. "You can't drug him forever. He'll die eventually."

Mrs. Douglas walked over to Greg, gently stroking his head. "Oh dear Greg, don't worry about that." When Morgan cleared his throat, Mrs. Douglas went on. "Oh yeah, sure sweetie, I'll tell him." She turned back around to the CSI. "You see, Greg, Morgan helps me with Nick, but only because I promised him something." She walked over to the couch to sit down. "You really shouldn't have interrupted me and Nick that day at the lake house... I'm sure you were proud when you thought you'd saved your friend but you'll regret it soon enough. I know you." She grinned. "I wouldn't go as far as saying I know you better than you know yourself, but... I know about your fears. Your kryptonite. And don't get me wrong. I'm not doing this because I enjoy it. You know I liked you. I'm doing it because I want to punish you. Because you need to be punished, you..."

Morgan interrupted her. "Yeah Cheryl, we get it. He was a very bad boy. Wrap it up, okay?"

She gave him a rather devilish look. "I was getting there. But okay... Whatever. Greg, there's a reason Morgan is this tall, big, strong guy." With Morgan being almost 6'6'' tall and of very muscular built, Mrs. Douglas was not exaggerating. "You have no idea how hard it is to find someone as handsome, tall and muscular who's also into handsome guys like you."

Greg looked confused for a moment, but quickly grasped what she was getting at. "No... No, no... No. Please! You know I never meant to hurt you, I was just looking out for Nick, you have to..."

"Quiet!" she yelled. She didn't like getting interrupted. "This is not up for debate, honey." She looked over to Morgan. "I actually felt sorry for you when I heard about what this Novak guy did to you. Believe my, I'd never would've thought I'd use this knowledge to ever hurt you..."

While she was talking, Morgan was making a few steps towards Greg. He wasn't paying much attention to what she was saying anymore, all of his concentration was going to Morgan. As this big guy was approaching him, Greg kept shaking his head while staring at him in fear. Taking a shaky, fearful step back, he noticed he was already almost hugging the wall. He looked around in panic, trying to use something to defend himself, but his eyesight let him down one more time.

Morgan grabbed Greg's neck, pushed him against the wall and leaned in close to the young CSIs ear. Tears started running down this scared man's cheeks as he was shaking in terror. Morgan whispered to him while grinning devilish.

"I thought we'd agreed we wait for Nick, you help me and then you have him for yourself? I really don't feel like watching you two!" Mrs. Douglas said while rolling her eyes.

Morgan turned his head around to her. "Oh come on, I just wanna have some fun. You'll have your fun, too." He turned around to eye Greg up and down, then turned back to her. "I'm sure it's gonna be a while. You could take a nap in the bedroom until your guy arrives, and I'll have some fun with mine here."

"You wish, huh? No. I'll use the time efficiently. There is something I wanted to do with Greg..." Mrs. Douglas grinned at the frightened Greg. "I wanted to pay back the bruised wrist he caused me. You can't imagine how much this hurt!" Greg didn't cause the bruise, but she felt he was responsible for it. She was crazy, after all. She grabbed a baseball bat Nick had leaned against a wall in his living room. "How convenient to find this here." She walked towards Greg.

"Cheryl, wait. You'll have better aim without a gun in your hand, don't you think?" Morgan suggested.

"...Probably. Thanks." She put the gun in her pocket and walked over to Greg. She giggled. "Okay, I'll be nice. You decide, Greg. Left or right?"

"Oh Cheryl, one more thing."

She stopped a few feet away from Greg. "Yeah?"

Morgan pointed a gun at her. "Put the bat down and forget about it."

"...What the HELL are you doing? You brought a gun here?!"

"Just put it down."

She laughed rather crazy. "Oh I see. I tell you to wait until Nick comes here and you turn on me. Listen. If you want the rest of the money, you'll do what I say!"

"I'm a cop, Cheryl! Put it down!"

She turned around to Greg in shock. The fear in his face had faded. He already knew, Morgan had whispered this information in his ear. She turned back around to Morgan. "A cop? A damned cop?! You betrayed me?!" She dropped the bat and grabbed her gun, pointing it at Morgan.

* * *

Greg sat on the couch in a rather catatonic state as police officers and paramedics kept walking in and out of Nick's home. He was gazing into space until Nick walked through the door. "Greg! I hurried over here as soon as I heard!" He put his arms around his friend and sat down next to him. "...How are you?"

"Relieved... I guess." Greg wasn't quite talkative at the moment. He was still in shock and wasn't quite sure how to deal with his feelings at the moment. "Did, uh... did you know about the undercover cop?"

Nick shook his head. "I had no idea. Looks like it was our lucky day..." He gave him a faint smile.

"How's Mrs. Douglas doing?" Morgan had shot at her before she could pull the trigger of her gun. She was in bad shape.

"I think they're taking her to the hospital now. But I don't care about her at the moment. Did you get hurt?"

Greg shook his head. His neck was a little reddened from Morgan pushing him against the wall. He needed to make it look believable but didn't intend to hurt Greg.

Nick didn't know what to say, how to act towards Greg. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to cheer him up or let him dwell in his misery for a while. He just knew Greg wouldn't want to stay at Nick's place at them moment and his own home wasn't an option, either. "Do you want to go to a hotel or... I'm pretty sure Sara has a spare room for you at her place."

Greg shook his head again. "I think I want to be alone, a hotel room's fine."

"Sara's never at home, anyway." Nick smiled at him.

"A hotel room's fine," he repeated.

* * *

Greg had settled in in a hotel room and everybody at the lab was sure he'd take a few days off from work. That was the reason why everyone was surprised when they saw Greg wandering around the lab's corridors.

"Hey, Greg!" Nick exclaimed surprised as he walked up to him. "What are you doing here?"

"My shift starts in ten minutes," he replied rather bluntly.

"...I know that. We all just figured you'd stay home for a few days."

"I don't have a home at the moment," he replied with a smirk on his lips while walking inside the break room.

"You know what I meant. Are you sure you want to get back to work just like that?"

Greg sighed as he sat down. "She's dead. It's over. There's no need to dwell in the past, I guess..."

Mrs. Douglas had died on the way to the hospital due to the two gun wounds the undercover cop inflicted on her. Nick grabbed two coffee mugs out of the cabin. "Yeah but it was another traumatic experience for you... Don't you need some time away from... your life?"

Greg shook his head. "No, I actually think that's what would be bad for me at the moment. I need to get back to my life."

"You need the distraction?" Nick put one of the coffee mugs in front of Greg and sat down with the other one in his hand.

"It's not just that. I guess I got a little detached from, well, everything... in the last few weeks. I need to focus on what's important again."

"...And that would be?"

"Work." He smiled.

Nick rolled his eyes with a faint smile on his lips. "Sure. What could be more important than going through other people's trash, taking samples of their saliva and stuff like that?"

"You know you can make our work sound very unappealing." Greg got off of his seat to pour some milk into his coffee. "But that's my plan, you know? Focus on the work for a while, then see what happens." He had a hopeful smile on his face as he sipped from his coffee, looking forward to a more carefree future.

* * *

Three days later, Greg was finally allowed to start cleaning up his apartment after Mrs. Douglas paid Zachary Perry to mess it up. He had to pull a double at work and now, despite being really tired, wanted to start erase the signs of the break-in. He needed his apartment back as soon as possible, he was tired of sleeping in a hotel.

When he arrived there he saw that the door was wide open. Noise was coming out of his apartment. He walked in slowly with his cell phone in his hand, getting ready to call for backup. He found the silhouette he saw walking around in his bedroom to be his boss. "...Russell?"

"Greg. What are you doing here?" Russell walked up to him with a smile.

"I was gonna ask you the same thing. You almost scared me to death."

"Sorry," Nick said, walking up behind him. "We thought you'd head straight to the hotel after your double shift."

Greg looked around confused. Sara was there, as well, greeting him with a hug. "What happened in here?" The place looked much better than what Greg had seen on the photos the CSIs took. "You didn't... Did you... Did you guys do that?"

Nick patted him joyfully on the back. "We wanted to surprise you. Russell gave you the double shift today so that we could work in here."

"Oh guys... You shouldn't have. I just came here to clean it up myself."

"Don't worry, Greg. We know your standards of a clean apartment. It's actually not that much work to achieve it," Sara said teasing.

Greg flashed them all a big, thankful smile as he rolled up his sleeves. "Alright. Where can I help?"

* * *

**Ende.**


End file.
